Israel official says Israel, Turkey reach an understanding

Israel and Turkey have reached a preliminary agreement to restore diplomatic relations ruptured by the 2010 Israeli naval raid on a Turkish aid ship heading for the Gaza Strip, an Israeli government official said.

Soldiers shot and killed the driver of a vehicle who tried to run them over in one attack during an Israeli arrest raid in the Qalandia refugee camp, the army said.

Turkish officials told Bloomberg this week that progress had been made toward an agreement with Israel, driven partly by Turkey’s current conflict with Russian Federation and its need to find alternative sources of fuel. Turkey would then drop all claims against Israel.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the rights group “deliberately ignores the unique challenges facing Israel’s security forces and the wave of incitement and violence which Israel and its citizens are facing”.

Israeli leaders say Palestinian incitement to violence on social media and sympathy with Islamist militant calls for Israel’s destruction are key factors behind the wave of Palestinian attacks. He did not say where Aruori was now located.

Salah Aruri, the senior Hamas official believed to have masterminded the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in Gush Etzion previous year, will not be permitted to enter Turkey.

According to the report, the pact also urges Turkey to expel Arouri, who is based in İstanbul. “We only wanted justice to be served on behalf of the Dawabsheh family; on July 31, one-and-a-half year-old Palestinian baby Ali Dawabsheh and his parents Saad and Reham were burned and killed and his 4-year-old brother Ahmad was seriously injured when their home in the village of Duma was firebombed by Jewish extremists”.

Israel warned the ships to turned back but when they refused Israeli navy commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara.

Talks on compensation began in 2013 after Israel extended a formal apology to Turkey in a breakthrough brokered by US President Barack Obama but had not been finalised.

Turkey had no immediate comment on the Israeli announcement, but acknowledged in June that the sides were holding talks aimed at reconciliation.