Representatives from Turkiye plan to join a meeting of the Gaza mediation team in Doha amid diplomatic movement created after United States President Donald Trump presented a 20-point plan to end the devastating war.
“Turkiye now stands as part of the US initiative” and is collaborating closely on it, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a news conference on Tuesday.
He confirmed that officials from Hamas received the full text of the US plan on Monday night, and have promised to “responsibly examine” it and respond. Al-Ansari added that it is “too early to speculate on the outcome”, but noted that Qatar is “upbeat” because the plan is “comprehensive”.
The spokesman said Qatar “is content” with security assurances it has received from the US and accepts Israel’s apology over its air attacks on Doha on September 9 that tried and failed to wipe out the top political leadership of Hamas.
The peace plan for Gaza has been roundly welcomed by the mediators as well as leaders from across the world, as the genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave continues to kill dozens of people each day. More than 66,000 Palestinians are confirmed dead, while thousands more are believed to be under the vast debris of destroyed buildings.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday hailed Trump for his efforts to broker a ceasefire and “halting the bloodshed”.
He added that Turkiye would continue to support the diplomatic process, and is committed to helping establish “a just and lasting peace acceptable to all parties”.
The plan wants to remove Hamas from governing Gaza and offer its fighters amnesty or expulsion to other countries, while getting out all 48 captives held in the enclave and allowing the entry of lifesaving humanitarian aid to the famine-stricken population.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military continues to push deep inside Gaza City with its tanks, and hits across the enclave with deadly air raids.
Sources at al-Awda and al-Aqsa hospitals told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that at least 15 Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces while waiting for aid near a distribution point in central Gaza.
A source at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City confirmed the death of another child due to malnutrition and lack of treatment. Gaza’s Ministry of Health has recorded 453 hunger-related deaths so far, including 150 children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to contradict a part of Trump’s plan on Tuesday when he released a video message saying the Israeli army “will remain in most of the Gaza Strip”.
The promise of the proposal is that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza,” and there will be no annexation of the occupied West Bank on the way to a future contiguous Palestinian state.
Qatar, along with Egypt and the US, had led efforts to broker a comprehensive ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with several rounds of diplomacy carried out in Doha.
The post Turkiye to join Gaza mediation talks in Doha, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry says appeared first on Al Jazeera.
