Hamas: Turkish PM to visit Gaza in May

Hamas in the Gaza Strip said Sunday that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit the Palestinian coastal enclave in May. "We highly welcome" the visit, said Ziad Al-Zaza, Hamas' deputy prime minister, who hoped the visit "would open new horizons to lift the blockade on Gaza." Hamas earlier talked about such a visit to take place in April, but Erdogan said Tuesday he had delayed the Gaza visit until after his trip to Washington in mid-May. Turkish media reported that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had urged Erdogan to reconsider the timing of his Gaza visit, as the idea appeared after Israel apologized to Turkey for the killing of eight Turks and a Turkish American aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in 2010. The Israeli apology, which is expected to put the Turkish- Israeli ties back to normal, is incomplete from Hamas' point of view. "This must be crowned by the full lifting of the siege on Gaza," Al-Zaza told reporters. To cool down the situation after the flotilla attack, Israel has started a gradual easing of the blockade it imposed on Gaza which aimed to isolate Hamas.