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Erdogan’s Visit to Baghdad to Mark Changing Point in Relations between Iraq, Türkiye 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters ahead of the local elections in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters ahead of the local elections in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Erdogan’s Visit to Baghdad to Mark Changing Point in Relations between Iraq, Türkiye 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters ahead of the local elections in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters ahead of the local elections in Istanbul, Türkiye, March 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Iraq and Türkiye are expected to deepen their relations when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pays a visit to Baghdad on Monday.

Ankara and Baghdad announced that the visit will witness the signing of a strategic framework agreement that covers security, economic and development affairs and the water and energy files.

An Iraqi government source confirmed on Thursday Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler’s announcement that the two neighbors will sign a strategic cooperation agreement on combating the operations of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkish Defense Ministry spokesperson Zeki Akturk told reporters on Thursday that Ankara will speed up Operation Claw-Lock against the PKK in northern Iraq.

On Tuesday, Erdogan said the water file will be one of the most important articles on his agenda in Baghdad.

The Iraqi source said Türkiye has been showing its readiness to cooperate in finding a mechanism to secure Iraq’s water share.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Development Road project, which it unveiled in 2023, will also be an important issue on Erdogan’s agenda.

Turkish Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Friday that an agreement has been reached over months of ministerial and technical discussions to form a joint mechanism that would follow up on the project.

He hoped that the United Arab Emirates and Qatar would become a part of it.

Turkish-Iraqi parliamentary discussions held in Ankara on Wednesday and Thursday concluded that it was in both countries’ best interest to jointly act to combat terrorism and bolster cooperation in economic and development fields, with Erdogan’s visit expected to mark a changing point in their relations.

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Arab World

With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.