Turkish FM to meet Hamas leader in bid to secure week-long humanitarian cease-fire

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is visiting Qatar to meet Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Muhammad al-Atiyah, in a bid to push forward a truce plan outlining a week-long humanitarian cease-fire and seek terms for a durable truce.

A recent truce plan, jointly built by efforts from the U.S., Qatar and Turkey, proposes a week-long humanitarian cease-fire and immediate session of negotiations to set the terms for a lasting truce.
The cease-fire would allow people in Gaza access to humanitarian aid through the Rafah border and crossings in Israel, as well as will clarify some parameters for lifting the embargo on the enclave, a Turkish official told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Immediately after the cease-fire, these terms could be negotiated in Cairo with indirect talks through representatives from Palestinian groups in Gaza and from Israel.

The mediating parties have been trying to strike a balance between an Egyptian initiative that proposed a lasting truce first and negotiations later. Yet, Egypt’s proposal was rejected by Hamas last week.

Hamas, nonetheless, insists for a truce that would envision a political deal that would include a guaranteed end to Israel’s eight-year blockade of Gaza as a “must,” as well as the release of nearly 60 re-arrested prisoners who were freed by the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011.

“We want a cease-fire as soon as possible, that’s parallel with ending the siege on Gaza,” Mashaal, told the BBC in an interview on July 24.

As the U.S. has been imposing pressure on Israel, on a simultaneous track, Qatar and Turkey have been in talks with Hamas in attempts to convince the group to agree on a...