Hamas: Turkey PM to visit Gaza on July 5

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit the Gaza Strip next week, a senior official in the ruling Hamas movement told a newspaper on Thursday, despite opposition from Washington.

“The visit of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is to take place on July 5,” Abdelsalam Siyyam, secretary general of the Hamas government said in an interview with Falestin, a newspaper considered very close to the Islamist movement.

The Turkish leader has long pledged to push ahead with plans to visit the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, despite opposition from the United States which says it would be a “distraction” from efforts to revive the peace process.

Washington also fears such a visit could damage the rapprochement between Israel and Turkey which was personally brokered by President Barack Obama in March.

“Two Turkish delegations, one governmental and one press, arrived in Gaza two days ago and met with prime minister [Ismail] Haniya and deputy foreign minister Ghazi Hamad to look into the details of the visit,” Siyyam told the paper. more

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