President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday said Western countries must pressure Israel to accept the latest Gaza cease-fire proposal, which he believes is possible to achieve.
“After U.S. President Joe Biden’s phone call to (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu, I hope a final cease-fire will be secured in a couple of days so that Israel’s recent massacres will come to an end,” Erdoğan was quoted as telling reporters on his flight back from Kazakhstan.
Israel’s spy chief was expected in Qatar on Friday for the latest effort to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, almost nine months into Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.
A source with knowledge of the talks said the Israeli delegation led by David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence service, was heading to the Gulf emirate for the discussions “aiming to bring the parties closer to a deal in Gaza.”
The Gaza war, which has raised fears of a broader conflagration involving Lebanon, began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians.
In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,011 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians.
There has been no truce in the war since a one-week pause in November saw 80 Israeli hostages freed in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The war has uprooted 90% of Gaza’s population, destroyed much of the coastal territory’s housing and other infrastructure, and left almost 500,000 people experiencing “catastrophic” hunger, according to the United Nations and other world bodies.
Erdoğan has been criticizing Western nations for backing Israeli “plans to spread the war” into Lebanon, after fresh Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon.
Israeli forces regularly exchange border fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Türkiye pledged solidarity with Lebanon and has been a virulent critic of Israel, has hosted Hamas leaders and welcomes the Palestinian resistance group as a liberation movement, unlike the majority of the Western world.
Ankara has repeatedly called on the U.N. Security Council and the U.S., Israel’s biggest military provider, to exert pressure on Israel to accept a cease-fire proposal.
