Erdogan meets with Palestinian leaders Abbas and Haniyeh to talk.

In Ankara, Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with the Palestinian President and the head of Hamas' political office. They talked about how important it is for the Palestinian factions to work together before the Palestinian faction gathering this weekend. Erdogan met with Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday at the capital's presidential building in Ankara. During the meeting, Erdogan expressed his sadness over the deaths of Palestinians in attacks by Israeli security forces and settlers and wished the injured a quick recovery. After the meeting, Turkey's Communications Directorate wrote, "Recalling how important it is for the Palestinian people to be united and strong, President Erdogan said that those who want to hurt the peace process benefit from Palestinian division." Erdogan said that Turkey doesn't agree with Israel's continued closure of the Gaza Strip.

He also said that Ankara is keeping a close eye on what's going on in the seized east of al-Quds and at the al-Aqsa mosque. The meeting happened before a meeting of Palestinian groups, called for July 30 in Cairo. On Tuesday, Abbas met with Haniyeh face-to-face. They decided to hold a meeting of many different groups in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, to talk about the conflict with Israel and how to stop fighting among themselves. Husam Badran, a member of Hamas's political bureau, said in a statement that preparations for the Cairo meeting had been talked about during talks between the Hamas leadership and Abbas. He stressed that unity was needed to face Israel, which "devours the land, expands settlements, and controls the abilities of our people."

The group said that when its leaders met with Abbas on Tuesday, they told him again that "resistance is the best way to fight the occupation." Erdogan also had a one-on-one meeting with Abbas on Tuesday. During that meeting, Erdogan promised to keep supporting the Palestinian cause and said he was worried about the recent rise in violence in the West Bank. Erdogan said, "We will continue to help the Palestinians in the best way we can." "We are very worried about the growing number of deaths, demolitions, illegal settlement growth, and settler violence," the leader of Turkey said. A Palestinian Presidency source told AFP that the meeting in Cairo will be about "how to stop aggression against the Palestinian people," especially by the extremist Israeli government, and "how to strengthen Palestinian unity."

Since the beginning of last year, Israeli settlers and troops have been becoming more violent toward Palestinians in the seized areas. This month, Israeli troops raided the Jenin refugee camp for two days, destroying parts of the area and killing 12 Palestinians, some of whom were children. The Israeli military's raid on Jenin was one of the biggest actions in the West Bank in recent years.