Turkey<\/a> since 2011, when Turkey helped secure the agreement for the group to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.<\/p>\n\n\n\nErdo\u011fan has maintained links with Haniyeh, who has been a frequent visitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fidan was a past head of Turkish intelligence and the country provided information and passports to Hamas officials, including Haniyeh, according to Sinan Ciddi, a Turkey specialist at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has never been confirmed by Turkish authorities, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Qatar withdraws from mediation efforts, Turkey could seek to increase its profile based on its Hamas links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fidan held talks with visiting Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry on Saturday, with both men emphasising the need to deliver more humanitarian aid to Gaza where the threat of famine looms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erdo\u011fan also met with Shoukry late on Saturday, the Turkish presidency said in a statement, where he said it was \u201cessential for Islamic countries to work together\u201d to \u201cprevent the entire region from falling into a spiral of conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turkey is one of Gaza\u2019s main humanitarian aid partners, sending 45,000 tonnes of supplies and medicine to the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel has said it is preparing an offensive against the Gazan city of Rafah and the reported Israeli attack on the historic Iranian city of Isfahan, following Iran\u2019s direct attack on Israel, has only clouded hopes of a peace breakthrough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Erdo\u011fan can only expect a \u201cvery limited\u201d role because of his outspoken condemnation of Israel and its actions in Gaza, according to Ciddi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, the Turkish leader likened the tactics of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and called Israel a \u201cterrorist state\u201d because of its offensive against Hamas after the militant group\u2019s 7 October attacks on Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ciddi said Erdo\u011fan would not be welcome in Israel and at most might be able to pass messages between Palestinian and Israel negotiators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The unprecedented Hamas attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Militants also took about 250 hostages. Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel\u2019s retaliatory offensive has killed 34,049 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory\u2019s health ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish president\u00a0Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u00a0urged Palestinians to unite amid Israel\u2019s war in Gaza following hours-long talks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul on Saturday, his office said. Erdo\u011fan has failed to establish a foothold as a mediator in the Gaza conflict that has roiled the region, with the Hamas-run Palestinian territory bracing for a new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6850,6728,5304,11394,10852,7358,10446,287,9331,6848,10767,6083,8875,8660,9505,1195,6458,11380,5345,2629,1445,5930,12634,6237,12173,8251,12773,13157,3095,5539,9515,10303,9833,12309,10748,5382,5865,1993,3773,5864,5568,6821,5396,7574,3805,3174,8552,10814,5762,13298,9832,7609,2570,3151,7231,9262,11957,10885,5251,2354,5570,5320,10415,594,10353],"class_list":["post-42272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-aid","tag-alliance","tag-attack","tag-attacks","tag-babies","tag-bank","tag-burning","tag-children","tag-city","tag-civilians","tag-conflict","tag-dead","tag-doha","tag-essential","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-famine","tag-fatah","tag-foreign-minister","tag-gaza","tag-god","tag-hamas","tag-health","tag-hitler","tag-hostages","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-increase","tag-islamic","tag-israel","tag-istanbul","tag-killed","tag-medicine","tag-meeting","tag-men","tag-militant","tag-murder","tag-muslim","tag-my-life","tag-nazi","tag-palestian","tag-palestinian","tag-palestinians","tag-peace","tag-presidency","tag-president","tag-prime-minister","tag-qatar","tag-rafah","tag-rape","tag-regional-war","tag-soldier","tag-terrorist","tag-turkey","tag-turkeys-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-union","tag-united-states","tag-unity","tag-victory","tag-war","tag-washington","tag-west-bank","tag-women","tag-work","tag-who","tag-x"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42274,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42272\/revisions\/42274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}