The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007.
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Critics of the blockade say the measure amounts to collective punishment.
It was formally signed on Tuesday by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu in Ankara and Israel’s Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold in Jerusalem, officials said. The largely procedural signing was closed to the media.
The Turkish government cut off relations with Israel following an Israeli raid on a Turkish ship carrying aid to Gaza, in which nine Turkish aid workers were killed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas spoke by phone overnight, with the Turkish leader explaining the agreement’s main points, a statement from the Palestinian presidency said. However, Hamas stopped short of endorsing the pact and insisted it was sticking to its policy of resisting Israel. Cairo has also maintained a blockade on the Strip.
In Rome, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal would help bring “stability” to the turbulent Middle East.
“Gaza doesn’t just need an electricity plant or a hospital where people can get treatment, Gaza needs many things, it needs a lot of support, not just a hospital, or a passage to let us in and out”, he said. Given that Hamas controls Gaza with an iron fist there is no reason to believe that Hamas wouldn’t use the concrete provided by Turkey for this goal and Turkey knows it. Turkey also has tense relations with Russian Federation and is looking to Israel to help supply natural gas.
There have been three wars between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2008, including a devastating 50-day conflict in the summer of 2014. One later died of his wounds.
As for Turkey, it relinquished its demand to remove the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, and will bar judicial prosecution against Israeli soldiers and officers.
He stressed that the global community “has a great responsibility to work continuously and seriously to achieve peace”, and that the United Nations will continue to work for a future without occupation and injustice, and for the establishment of a Palestinian state to live side by side with the state of Israel. Relations were never broken completely.
Usama Hamdan, a member of the Hamas’ politburo, told China’s official Xinhua news agency that the movement considers the deal a Turkish affair and that Hamas is not concerned with it.
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Netanyahu has come under pressure within Israel not to agree to the deal if it does not include provisions for Hamas to hand over four missing Israelis, including the remains of two soldiers presumed dead and two civilians believed to be being held in Gaza.
