Turkey, Israel mend relations after deadly raid

An Israeli official says that Israel and Turkey have reached “an understanding” that could lead to a rapprochement between the former allies whose relations broke down in 2010.

As part of the deal, Israel is to establish a compensation fund to address the killing of 10 Turks by Israeli marines who stormed a pro-Palestinian activist ship, the Mavi Marmara, in 2010.

“If we’d reached an agreement with Turkey two or even three years ago, Israel would have gotten more out of it”, Herzog said at a Limmud FSU conference in Kibbutz Ginosar in the north.

Turkish diplomatic sources, quoted by the state-run Anatolia news agency, said negotiations between Israel and Turkey on a normalisation of ties were in progress.

“It all depends on the final signatures”, said the statement from anonymous Israeli officials.

“The agreement has yet to be finalized, but its diplomatic damage is already done”, he charged in a talk at Limmud FSU.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli army fire killed another Palestinian during a border protest, medics said.

The official also said it was agreed that Saleh Aruori, a senior leader in the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas who has been living in Turkey, would not be allowed to operate from there and would not be allowed into Turkey.

In a rapidly-changing regional context, mainly Sunni Muslim Turkey’s relations with mainly Shiite Iran – Israel’s arch foe – are deteriorating as Tehran assists Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who Ankara wants ousted.

The organisation said the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s silence in the face of such statements authorises the implementation of this policy.

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department issued a renewed travel warning to U.S. citizens traveling to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, noting that in recent months, violence – particularly in Jerusalem and the West Bank – has reached levels “not seen in those areas in a decade”. Ankara also offered to start talking about a pipeline to Europe via Turkey from the largest Israeli gas well, Leviathan, when it goes into production.

“We, Israel, the Palestinians and the region have a lot to win from a normalisation process”, he said.

Earlier this week, Mr. Erdogan, now Turkey’s president, hinted at warming Israeli-Turkish relations, saying an agreement could be good for the region.

However, relations began to thaw following the public apology from Israel in 2013.