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Turkey on Monday hosts a string of top diplomats from the Islamic world to bring their influence to bear on the future of Gaza, as fears grow for the increasingly fragile truce.  The October 10 ceasefire in the two-year-long Israel-Hamas war, brokered by US President Donald Trump, has been sorely tested by continued Israeli strikes and claims of Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers.In a bid to drive forward reconstruction efforts, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan invited his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia to Istanbul for talks to start around 2:00 pm (1100 GMT). All of them were called to a meeting with Trump in late September on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, just days before he unveiled his plan to end the fighting in Gaza. Turkish foreign ministry sources say Ankara will press them to support plans for Palestinians to take control of the coastal territory’s security and governance. At the weekend, Fidan welcomed a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya, the Palestinian Islamist movement’s lead negotiator.”We must end the massacre in Gaza. A ceasefire in itself is not enough,” Fidan said, stressing that “Gaza should be governed by the Palestinians.”Earlier on Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Hamas appeared committed to the truce, pointing the finger of blame at Israel. “It seems Hamas is quite determined to adhere to the agreement while Israel’s record is very poor,” he told an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) gathering in Istanbul, saying Muslim states should play “a leading role” in Gaza’s recovery. “We believe the reconstruction plan prepared by the Arab League and the OIC should be implemented immediately,” he said of the plan unveiled in March.  – Turkey-Israel tensions -Turkey has been instrumental in backing Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza.Fidan is expected to repeat calls for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where aid agencies have complained their convoys still do not have enough access to alleviate the famine conditions in parts of the territory. Israel has long viewed Turkey’s diplomatic overtures with suspicion over Ankara’s close ties with Hamas and has expressed its firm opposition to Turkey having any role in the international peacekeeping force being put together to oversee the ceasefire.Under Trump’s plan, that stabilisation mission is meant to take over in the wake of the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.A Turkish disaster relief team, sent to help efforts to recover the many bodies buried under Gaza’s rubble — including those of Israeli hostages seized by Hamas — has likewise been stuck at the border because of the Israeli government’s refusal to let them in, according to Ankara.

Turkey will on Monday canvass peers in the Islamic world to bring their influence to bear on the future of Gaza, as fears grow for a just weeks-old truce. The October 10 ceasefire in the two-year-long Israel-Hamas war, brokered by US President Donald Trump, has become increasingly fragile, tested by continued Israeli strikes and claims of Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers. Turkey, among the most fervent critics of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, will welcome the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia in Istanbul on Monday. All those top diplomats were consulted by Trump in late September on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, six days before the US leader unveiled his plan to end the fighting in Gaza.According to Turkish foreign ministry sources, Ankara is set to urge those dignitaries to support plans for Palestinians to take control of the coastal territory’s security and governance.On the eve of the Monday meet, Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan welcomed a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya, the Palestinian Islamist movement’s lead negotiator.”We must end the massacre in Gaza. A ceasefire in itself is not enough,” Fidan said, arguing for the two-state solution to the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We should recognise that Gaza should be governed by the Palestinians, and act with caution,” he added.- Turkey-Israel tensions -Besides its denunciations of Israel, Turkey has been instrumental in backing Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza.Fidan, who has accused Israel of seeking excuses to break Trump’s truce, is also expected to repeat calls for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, which is wracked by hunger and tens of thousands of deaths from the Israeli army’s offensive. Yet Israel has long viewed Turkey’s diplomatic overtures, including towards Trump, with suspicion as a result of the country’s closeness to Hamas. Israeli leaders have repeatedly voiced their opposition to Turkey, a NATO member with one of the region’s most credible militaries, having any role in the international peacekeeping force mooted for Gaza.Under Trump’s plan, that stabilisation mission is meant to take over in the wake of the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.A Turkish disaster relief team, sent to help efforts to recover the many bodies buried under Gaza’s rubble — including those of Israeli hostages seized by Hamas — has likewise been stuck at the border because of the Israeli government’s refusal to let them in, according to Ankara.

Inside a restored house in central Tehran, toys from every era, from ancient Persia to Soviet Russia and the United States, share the same space, stirring childhood memories from long ago.”I always thought that the target audience would be children and teenagers,” said 46-year-old Azadeh Bayat, founder of the museum, which opened last year after six years of renovations.”But now even adults visit the museum frequently,” she told AFP.Bayat, a researcher in children’s education, has gathered more than 2,000 toys from around the world.”By discovering the toys of their parents and grandparents, children learn to better understand and connect their own world with that of older generations,” she said. In the museum, a clay animal figurine from ancient Persia stood alone in a glass case.Nearby, a group of wooden “matryoshka” dolls, in traditional Russian dress with rosy cheeks, stood on one shelf, gleaming across from brightly painted Soviet tin cars.An Atari console, one of the early versions of video games from the 1980s, sits among the displays.American Barbie dolls, which were once heavily restricted in Iran as a symbol of Western influence, were also on display. Their popularity pushed Iranian authorities to create the modestly dressed “Sara and Dara” dolls as local equivalent in the early 2000s.For Maedeh Mirzaei, a 27-year-old employee in the gold sector, the experience at the museum was nostalgic. “There was so much publicity around the two Iranian dolls, their faces appeared on books and notebooks everywhere,” she said.Across the room, a museum worker demonstrated to a group of visiting schoolchildren the mechanics of a wooden acrobat puppet, known as “Ali Varjeh”, or “Ali the Jumper”, whose movements come to life with the pull of a string.The museum recently held an event themed around the Belgian character Tintin, as well as other shadow puppetry shows. “I remember playing with friends in the street or at home with these toys,” said 31-year-old Mehdi Fathi, a fitness instructor who was visiting the museum.”Some children nowadays may think that our dolls were silly and primitive,” he said.”But those toys helped us grow.”