The offices of both leaders announced late Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Turkey on July 28 to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Following Mahmoud Abbas, who is anticipated on July 25, Netanyahu will be welcomed, according to the Turkish presidency.
“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will welcome the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Turkey in the course of the same week,” the presidency said in a statement.
The leaders will discuss “Turkey-Palestine relations and the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as other topical international issues”, it added.
The visit, the first by an Israeli prime minister since Ehud Olmert in 2008, was confirmed by Netanyahu’s office.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is currently at a stalemate, and the West Bank under occupation is experiencing its worst violence in years. This is why Turkey is stepping up its diplomatic efforts.
In April, fighting broke out within the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, a flashpoint where Israeli police and Palestinians engaged in combat.
Israel, according to Erdogan, violated a “red line”.
However, relations between Turkey and Israel have improved over the past year with many high-level visits, including that of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, following several years of animosity between the two nations.
Israeli forces attacked the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was seeking to carry supplies to the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave under Israeli embargo and governed by the Islamist party Hamas, in 2010, resulting in a fatality. This worsened relations.
Following the deaths of around 50 Palestinians by the Israeli army in Gaza in May 2018, Turkey summoned its ambassador to Tel Aviv and expelled Israel’s ambassador from Ankara.
In retaliation, Israel dismissed the general consul of Turkey in Jerusalem.
