Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoglu, announced on Wednesday that he will visit Israel on May 24th in the context of the ongoing effort to improve the relationship between the two countries, four years after the mutual expulsion of their ambassadors.

According to APA MPA, the Turkish and Israeli governments have been trying in recent weeks to restore their once allied bilateral relationship, which has been characterized by many tensions in recent years. Energy is considered a potential field of cooperation.

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said last month that he had “high hopes” that his country would indeed promote energy cooperation with Israel, adding that he would discuss the issue with Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett.

However, on Tuesday, the head of the Turkish state announced that he had stressed to his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog, that he is deeply saddened by the deaths and injuries of Palestinians in operations of the Israeli Army and the police in the West Bank and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The two countries expelled their ambassadors in 2018. Since then, recriminations have been frequent: over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Turkish support for the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and other issues where their positions are diametrically opposed.

Speaking to Turkish television network CNN Türk, the Turkish Foreign Minister clarified that he will visit Israel and Palestine on May 24. As part of his trip to Israel, he will be accompanied by Turkish Energy Minister, Fatih Donmez, he noted. The two sides will discuss the prospect of their ambassadors returning to their posts, Cavusoglu added.

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Palestinian militants today fired rockets from the Gaza Strip against Israeli territory, which in turn launched a series of airstrikes against the pocket controlled by the Islamist organization Hamas, developments that raise concerns over a new military escalation amid tensions in the holy sites in Jerusalem.

Last Wednesday night, a rocket – the second this week – was fired from the Gaza Strip and landed in a field in the Israeli community of Sderot (south) without causing injuries.

The Israeli Army responded by launching a series of airstrikes in a central area of ​​the small, highly populated (2.3 million) Palestinian area, according to eyewitnesses and sources close to the security forces.

Following the retaliatory strikes, four more rockets were fired at Israel, but were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system, according to the General Staff. Air defence sirens sounded overnight in Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip.

The second exchange of fire this week, the deadliest since the end of the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021, came after incidents taking place at the weekend between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in Temple Square, the third holiest site of Islam and the holiest site of Judaism, known as the Temple Mount in Jewish tradition.

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