President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas are set to discuss Türkiye's efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza during talks this week in Ankara, according to Turkish diplomatic sources on Monday.
Speaking at a diplomatic forum in Türkiye at the weekend, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said Abbas would visit Ankara on Tuesday and meet Erdoğan.
Türkiye, which has harshly criticized Israel for its attacks on Gaza that have killed over 30,000 people, mostly women and children, and backed measures to have it tried for genocide at the World Court, has repeatedly called for a cease-fire. But Ankara has no direct involvement in truce talks.
Unlike its Western allies and some Gulf nations, NATO's second biggest army, Türkiye, does not view Hamas as a terrorist organization. The Palestinian resistance group runs Gaza and, on Oct. 7, carried out an attack inside Israel, with Israel responding with a campaign of indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza killing tens of thousands of civilians.
Erdoğan and Abbas will discuss recent developments in Gaza as well as the situation in the West Bank, the diplomatic sources said.
"Türkiye has been delivering extensive humanitarian aid to Gaza in coordination with Egypt since the beginning of Israel's attacks ... Within this scope, humanitarian aid operations will also be discussed during the meetings with President Abbas," the sources said.
