Both Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara later this month. The Turkish presidency said on July 24 that Abbas was invited to visit on July 25 and that Netanyahu would be welcomed on July 28. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the same week, according to a statement from the Turkish administration.
It was also said that “Turkey-Palestine relations and the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as other topical international issues,” will be on the agenda for the meeting between the two presidents. There hasn’t been an Israeli prime minister visit since Ehud Olmert’s in 2008. Several high-level visits, including one from Israeli President Isaac Herzog, have helped repair Turkey and Israel’s tense relations over the previous year. Tense ties persisted for almost five years following the tragic takeover of a Turkish ship by Israeli commandos in 2010. After Israeli soldiers murdered over 60 Palestinians in Gaza in May 2018 during a protest against Israel’s unlawful siege of the coastal enclave, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel and expelled Israel’s envoy to Turkey. The Turkish leader has called Israel a “apartheid state” and accused it of “state terror” and “genocide” over the deaths. Israel’s consul general to Turkey was expelled from Jerusalem in retaliation.
An increase in military incursions on Jenin and the northern occupied Palestinian areas, as well as settlement attacks on Palestinian communities, have all contributed to the tense situation that the planned visits, coordinated by Turkey, will take place in. Twelve Palestinians, including three children, were killed when Israel attacked the Jenin refugee camp earlier this month. At least 3,000 people were forced to find safety elsewhere, and dozens of homes were shelled, along with several roads and other infrastructure.
