HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah welcoming his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, who arrived in Doha yesterday afternoon on an official visit.

AFP

 Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu flew to Doha yesterday for talks with his Qatari counterpart on ways to end the bloodshed around Gaza.

Talks between HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah and  Davutoglu were interspersed with telephone discussions with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been spearheading Western efforts to end the Palestinian territory’s deadliest violence since 2008-9.

“I am in Qatar for Gaza ceasefire negotiations that have intensified for a couple of days and uninterrupted in the last 24 hours,” Davutoglu wrote on his official Twitter account.

“I will hold detailed meetings with our Qatari friends, who have been making great efforts together with us to stop the bloodshed in Gaza.”

Al-Attiyah and Davutoglu discussed “efforts to bring about an end to the Israeli aggression and to help the Palestinians in Gaza”, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

They also called Ban Ki-moon in order “to inform him about their talks aimed at bringing about a just agreement to protect the Palestinian people”.

Davutoglu later met Hamas chief Khalid Mishal in Doha, a government official said.

Davutoglu met Mishal in Doha for “negotiations aimed at a fair ceasefire,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “The talks are proceeding in a positive direction.”

Hamas has been demanding Israeli commitment to easing the eight-year-old Israeli blockade of Gaza and the release of re-arrested Palestinian prisoners as a condition for a ceasefire.

Mishal had reiterated the Hamas movement’s truce conditions on Wednesday.

“We are doing our best for a ceasefire but I don’t know if we will get any result,” a Turkish official said.

On Twitter, Davutoglu said that he would hold talks with “Palestinian parties with an aim to ensure that merciless attacks targeting our Palestinian brothers come to an immediate end”.

Turkey, a staunch critic of the Israeli assaults in Gaza, is pressing for involvement of Hamas in any negotiations for a ceasefire.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Israel of carrying out a “genocide” in Gaza.

Later yesterday Israel rejected a ceasefire proposal by Kerry, dashing hopes for a quick end to a Gaza conflict that has killed almost 850 Palestinians.

International efforts for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza ramped up earlier, as tensions also erupted in the West Bank where five Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire.

Israel’s Channel 1 reported that the security cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “unanimously rejected” a truce proposal by the US secretary of state.

But a US official said Netanyahu had told Kerry that Israel would begin a 12-hour pause in Gaza hostilities starting at 7am Israeli time today.

The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, made the comment when asked about Kerry’s earlier statement on a goodwill gesture by Netanyahu at a press conference in Cairo.  

Kerry said at the Cairo press conference with UN chief Ban Ki-moon that both sides “still have some terminology” to agree to on a ceasefire, but added they had “fundamental framework” on a truce.

The conflict, which began July 8, has claimed 848 Palestinian lives, most of them civilians, plus 35 Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians and a Thai migrant worker.

In a statement released by his office, Ban called for “an immediate, unconditional humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza and Israel”.

“This pause would last through the Eid al-Fitr holiday period,” Ban said, adding that a halt in the fighting could lead to a “longer-term ceasefire plan”.

His comments tracked reports from Western and Palestinian officials of efforts to secure an initial week-long humanitarian ceasefire to be followed by negotiations on a longer-term cessation of hostilities.

In the West Bank, tensions over the situation in Gaza erupted into protests in several cities after Friday prayers.

Overnight, one Palestinian was killed and 150 injured in clashes in the West Bank, and yesterday afternoon, five more Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops and settlers, three near the southern city of Hebron and two in the north near Nablus.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah made a rare public appearance in Beirut, preaching “solidarity with the people and the resistance in Gaza”. 

 

France to host international meeting

France will host several foreign ministers, including those of the United States, Turkey and Qatar, in Paris today to co-ordinate efforts to try and enable a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a French diplomatic source said.  “In support of initiatives currently under way, most notably Egypt’s initiative, our objective is to converge all international efforts so that the conditions of a ceasefire can emerge as quickly as possible,” the source said. The meeting will also be attended by Germany, Italy, Britain and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. There will not be any representatives at this stage from Israel, Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, the Reuters news agency reported.

 

 

 

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