Türkiye strives to find solution for Israel-Palestine conflict: Parliament speaker

By Diyar Guldogan

Ankara is making efforts to find a solution to the tension between Israel and Palestine, which over the weekend escalated into a deadly conflict, Turkish parliament speaker Numan Kurtulmus said on Thursday.

Israeli forces have launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip, a response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.

"Türkiye has been trying to make a great contribution from the beginning to resolve the tension between Israel and Palestine so that civilian casualties and bloodshed of innocent people could be avoided," Kurtulmus said at a general debate in the parliament on the conflict.

Türkiye has been taking "very serious" steps and holding diplomatic contacts to establish a cease-fire so that the people of Gaza can breathe, he added.

Further continuation of this tension will "ignite new regional and global conflicts," he stressed.

"I would like to express that we, as Türkiye, are ready to fulfill all our duties to establish a fair and equitable peace within the framework of the understanding on the axis of peace, trust and stability to prevent the expansion of the war," Kurtulmus said.

Earlier, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Türkiye was ready to undertake any kind of mediator role, including prisoner exchanges.

Ankara supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, including the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The conflict began on Saturday when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel, a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea, and air.

Hamas said the operation was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers’ growing violence against Palestinians.

The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.

Israel's response has extended into cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza, further worsening the living conditions in an area that has reeled under a crippling siege since 2007.