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On Friday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu flew into Qatar amid mounting calls from the US for the two allies to use their influence with Hamas to end the violence.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has led Western efforts to end the conflict, has repeatedly called Turkish and Qatari leaders to try and negotiate a truce.
On his official Twitter account, Davutoglu wrote, “I am in Qatar for Gaza ceasefire negotiations that have intensified for a couple of days and uninterrupted in the last 24 hours”.
“I will hold detailed meetings with our Qatari friends, who have been making great efforts together with us to stop the bloodshed in Gaza”.
Davutoglu had scrapped a scheduled trip to France to hold crisis talks with Qatar to support Hamas in its refusal of a ceasefire deal without the concessions it had asked for. Among other things, Hamas has asked for Israel to remove its eight-year-long blockade of Gaza and to release re-arrested Palestinian prisoners.
According to Turkish media reports, Davutoglu will meet with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Qatar; Meshaal is based in Qatar’s capital city Doha and had on Wednesday reiterated the Palestinian movement’s truce conditions.
On Twitter, Davutoglu said that he will hold talks with “Palestinian parties with an aim to ensure that merciless attacks targeting our Palestinian brothers come to an immediate end”.
Turkey has been a staunch critic of Israel’s onslaught in Gaza and is pressing for Hamas’ involvement in a ceasefire deal. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had on Thursday accused Israel of conducting “genocide” in Gaza.
Qatari and Turkish criticism of Egypt’s attempts to mediate a truce have complicated US efforts to negotiate a deal to end the violence while has so far killed over 800 Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are civilians.
