Erdogan, Abbas Discuss Developments in Gaza, Palestinian Territories

A handout photo made available by the Turkish Presidential press office shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) in Ankara, Türkiye, 14 August 2024. (EPA/ Turkish Presidential press office)
A handout photo made available by the Turkish Presidential press office shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) in Ankara, Türkiye, 14 August 2024. (EPA/ Turkish Presidential press office)
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Erdogan, Abbas Discuss Developments in Gaza, Palestinian Territories

A handout photo made available by the Turkish Presidential press office shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) in Ankara, Türkiye, 14 August 2024. (EPA/ Turkish Presidential press office)
A handout photo made available by the Turkish Presidential press office shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) in Ankara, Türkiye, 14 August 2024. (EPA/ Turkish Presidential press office)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received in Ankara on Tuesday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is on a two-day visit to Türkiye.

The officials discussed the developments in the Palestinian territories and Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza and the threat of a broader war in the region.

They tackled means to pressure Israel to stop its hostilities, reach a ceasefire and establish the two-state solution.

Abbas was received at Ankara airport by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

The Palestinian leader is scheduled to deliver a speech before the Turkish parliament on Thursday to address the Israeli violations against the Palestinian people and its war on Gaza.

Erdogan stressed to Abbas that Türkiye will stand against Israel’s attempts to spark a regional war.

Türkiye will continue its constructive, active and balanced foreign policy, he vowed.

Israel will be held accountable before international law for the genocide it is committing in Gaza, he declared.

Parliament is cutting its summer recess to host Abbas for his speech. The move is seen as a gesture of Türkiye’s strong support to the Palestinian people and their cause.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.