Turkish official urges permanent truce for conflict

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the Gaza Strip is part of Palestine, must remain so "and be treated as such", and called for building on the momentum of last month's Sharm El-Sheikh peace agreement — the basis of the current Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza — to make the truce permanent.

He made the remarks following a meeting with Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty in Ankara on Wednesday. The two officials met as they co-chaired the first meeting of the Turkiye-Egypt Joint Planning Group in respect to bilateral relations, which also touched on regional cooperation. Egypt and Turkiye are celebrating 100 years of diplomatic relations this year.

Fidan said he hopes Israel will demonstrate commitment to supporting lasting peace. Israel has been accused by its Arab neighbors and peace partners of violating the ceasefire as it carried out flash strikes in Gaza.

Meanwhile, there has been a surge in Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, and a tepid flow of promised aid into Gaza. Israel, for its part, has accused Hamas of violating the truce and exploiting aid.

In the latest incidents of Israeli aggression, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday that the Israeli military carried out attacks in the eastern part of Khan Younis, as well as in the northern part of Beit Lahiya, areas near the Zikim crossing, which Israel opened on Wednesday. The opening of the Zikim crossing was expected to ease the entry of humanitarian aid. All the areas attacked fall behind the yellow line that is under Israeli control.

In a statement on Wednesday, Caroline Seguin, emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders, said one month into the ceasefire, the situation in Gaza remains desperate.

Regarding the West Bank, Israeli President Isaac Herzog has condemned the "shocking and serious" settler attacks.

At the G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Canada, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed worries that the attacks could undermine Gaza peace efforts. Rubio vowed to do everything possible to make sure such attacks do not happen again.

Jawaid Iqbal, vice-chancellor of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in India, told China Daily that it "is a fact that the ceasefire agreement is being repeatedly violated by Israel while the US looks the other way".

However, Washington is taking a keen interest in rolling out the proposed international stabilization force for Gaza and will not permit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume the conflict, he said.

Turkiye's Fidan said on Wednesday that discussions were underway at the United Nations Security Council to define the mandate of the international stabilization force in terms of its legal and political framework for the committee expected to govern Gaza.

Abdelatty said Egypt and Turkiye agreed to work together to secure the ceasefire and advance the peace process and that both support the diplomatic efforts led by Qatar and the US to make the truce permanent. They also reaffirmed their backing for the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.

Gokhan Batu, an analyst at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Turkiye, said the developments in Gaza and the West Bank are deeply interconnected.

He said the core issue is that the Israeli withdrawal is conditioned on the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups. Hamas, meanwhile, seeks to transfer the administration of the strip to a national Palestinian body, which is difficult to realize under current circumstances.

He said the yellow line creates an additional obstacle. "We should not dismiss the possibility of Gaza's de facto partition, as the yellow line could emerge as a new boundary, with anti-Hamas groups functioning as a buffer between Israel and Hamas".

"On the other hand, the United States is aware that developments in the West Bank could quickly escalate into a flashpoint, creating additional pressure on Washington and destabilizing the region," said Batu.

"These dynamics could further undermine the Palestinian Authority, weaken its remaining legitimacy, and increase support for Gaza-based factions operating in the West Bank. Rubio's remarks are therefore related to this issue, reflecting Washington's intention to act proactively in order to contain the situation," he added.