Doha, Qatar — Turkey and Qatar intensified efforts to preserve the fragile Gaza ceasefire, with their leaders meeting in Doha Wednesday as diplomatic and intelligence chiefs coordinated to prevent renewed fighting, officials and sources said.
Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Hamas officials in Doha late Tuesday, a day before talks between Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Diplomats said the ceasefire has entered a highly sensitive phase and, asked whether the closed-door talks addressed Hamas’s political future or a proposed Gaza task force, a Turkish official said no concrete decisions had been made.
“These issues will depend on how Israel and the United States position themselves during the process,” the official told AFP.
Turkey’s foreign ministry released a picture of Kalin and Fidan meeting the Hamas delegation led by Mohammed Darwish, who affirmed in a statement the movement’s commitment “to a complete ceasefire despite repeated enemy violations”.
“Efforts by Turkey and Qatar will be crucial to maintaining the ceasefire and shaping Gaza’s future,” Palestinian analyst Ahmad al-Heela told AFP, citing their ties to the United States and Hamas.
“However, Qatar and Turkey face the challenge of persuading the US administration that Palestinians must have a voice in Gaza’s future — a step toward a two-state solution,” he added.
During their talks, Erdogan told Qatar’s emir the Gaza ceasefire “has provided relief to Palestinians” but said the two-state solution was the only way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue, his office said.
‘Balancing US bias’
Turkey has taken an active role in talks to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and voiced strong support for US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, in what one expert said would balance Washington’s pro-Israel stance.
“Turkey’s entry into the mediation role regarding Gaza for the first time represents an opportunity to strike a balance in mediation efforts in cooperation with Qatar and Egypt,” Vienna-based political analyst Hossam Shaker told AFP, saying it would help curb “the usual American bias toward Israel”.
Erdogan has said Turkey was ready to join an international task force in Gaza, with its military also expressing willingness to participate if needed.
A Turkish diplomatic source told AFP the task force “is expected to have a military component” but its structure had not been decided, with talks continuing over which nations would join and at what level.
Turkey has also dispatched 81 disaster response specialists who are “waiting at the Egyptian border” for Israel’s approval to enter Gaza, an official said.
They will help recover Palestinian and Israeli bodies, including hostages believed to be buried under collapsed structures.
‘Key’ Gaza role
Andreas Krieg, a security expert at King’s College London, told AFP a Turkish presence in Gaza would help advance efforts to set up the task force.
“This is just a ceasefire that needs to be translated into a peace deal in the next step. Turkish boots on the ground will be important to move towards a multinational security force in Gaza,” he explained, saying Turkey and Qatar would play a key role in “deconflicting” efforts.
Apart from the Gaza talks, the two leaders signed agreements including in defense industry cooperation.
Ahead of the visit, a Turkish security source said Ankara wanted to acquire some of Qatar’s used Eurofighter Typhoon jets.
Krieg said it would likely involve the sale of around a dozen Eurofighters in a deal that could “happen very quickly”.
“I think at most, they’ll be selling 12 (Eurofighters) to Turkey and obviously that transfer will only take place once the new planes (ordered by Qatar) come in, probably by the end of the year, early 2026,” he told AFP.
The Turkish official said only that “the details of the defense industry cooperation agreement will be clarified in the coming days.”
ICJ: Israel obliged to ease passage of aid into Gaza
The International Court of Justice said Wednesday that Israel was obliged to ease the passage of aid into Gaza, stressing it had to provide Palestinians with the “basic needs” to survive.
The wide-ranging ICJ ruling, quickly rejected by Israel, came as aid groups scrambled to scale up much-needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza, seizing upon a fragile ceasefire agreed earlier this month.
The ICJ’s “Advisory Opinion” is not legally binding but the court believes it carries “great legal weight and moral authority”.
ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa said Israel was “under an obligation to agree to and facilitate relief schemes provided by the United Nations and its entities”.
That included UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has banned after accusing some of its staff of taking part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that sparked the war.
The ICJ ruled that Israel had not substantiated the allegations.
Israel did not take part in the proceedings and hit back at the findings.
“Israel categorically rejects the ICJ’s ‘advisory opinion,’ which was entirely predictable from the outset regarding UNRWA,” foreign ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, posted on X. “This is yet another political attempt to impose political measures against Israel under the guise of ‘International Law.'”
Iwasawa said the ICJ “rejects the argument that the request abuses and weaponises the international judicial process”.
Another Israeli official added that Israel “cooperates with international organisations, with other UN agencies regarding Gaza. But Israel will not cooperate with UNRWA”.
Within hours of the ruling, Norway said it would propose a UN General Assembly resolution demanding that Israel lift restrictions on Gaza aid.
And the Palestinian delegate to the ICJ, Ammar Hijazi, urged nations to ensure Israel complies with the court to let aid into Gaza.
“The responsibility is on the international community to uphold these values and oblige Israel, bring Israel into compliance,” he told reporters.
Before the ruling, Abeer Etefa, Middle East spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), said 530 WFP trucks had crossed into Gaza since the ceasefire started on October 10.
The trucks had delivered more than 6,700 tons of food, which she said was “enough for close to half a million people for two weeks”.
Etefa said around 750 tons a day were now coming through, well below WFP’s target of around 2,000 tons daily.
The ICJ said that Israel, as an occupying power, was under an obligation “to ensure the basic needs of the local population, including the supplies essential for their survival”.
At the same time, Israel was “also under a negative obligation not to impede the provision of these supplies”, the court said.
The court also recalled the obligation under international law not to use starvation as a method of warfare.
‘Serious concerns’
The UN had asked the ICJ to clarify Israel’s obligations, as an occupying power, towards UN and other bodies “including to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival” of Palestinians.
ICJ judges heard a week of evidence in April from dozens of nations and organisations, much of which revolved around the status of UNRWA.
At the hearings, a US official raised “serious concerns” about UNRWA’s impartiality, and alleged that Hamas used the agency’s facilities.
The US official, Josh Simmons, said Israel had “no obligation to permit UNRWA specifically to provide humanitarian assistance”.
Simmons added that UNRWA was not the only option for delivering aid into Gaza.
However, the ICJ noted that UNRWA “cannot be replaced on short notice without a proper transition plan”.
Hijazi told the April hearings that Israel was blocking aid as a “weapon of war”, sparking starvation in Gaza.
The case was separate from the others Israel faces under international law over its Gaza campaign.
In July 2024, the ICJ issued another advisory opinion stating that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was “unlawful” and must end as soon as possible.
ICJ judges are also weighing accusations, brought by South Africa, that Israel has broken the 1948 UN Genocide Convention with its actions in Gaza.
Another court in The Hague, the International Criminal Court, has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was killed in an airstrike.
