President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Thursday that Turkey will join a joint task force set up to monitor the Gaza ceasefire and help locate the bodies of Israeli hostages presumed dead.
Turkey will join the force along with the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel as the truce’s first steps roll out, a senior Turkish official told Reuters.
Speaking in the presidential palace during an event marking the new academic year in Turkey, Erdoğan said Ankara would “follow implementation in the field” and support recovery efforts tied to the first phase of the agreement announced this week.
The plan’s opening moves include an Israeli troop pullback to designated lines within 24 hours of cabinet approval in Jerusalem and a 72-hour window to begin the release of hostages and recovery operations. Israel’s cabinet was due to convene Thursday evening to ratify the deal before the initial pullback begins.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it stands ready to act as a neutral intermediary for the return of hostages and human remains, but it has not been listed as a member of the five-country task force. The ICRC has repeatedly sought access to the remaining hostages and says it can assist with medical support, notifications and transfers when the parties agree.
Erdoğan earlier thanked US President Donald Trump for pushing the parties toward agreement and said Turkey would keep pressing for Gaza’s reconstruction.
The ceasefire deal, announced after talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, calls for the release of an initial group of Israeli hostages and the freeing of Palestinian prisoners, with additional steps tied to compliance by both sides. Celebrations broke out in Gaza and in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv after the announcement, though families and aid groups warned that implementation will be the real test.
The agreement is the first phase of a 20-point framework advanced by the United States to end the two-year military campaign in Gaza that began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and led to the abduction of roughly 250.
Gaza’s health authorities say more than 66,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s military response began.
Since October 2023 UN experts, rights groups and courts have warned that Israel’s siege, bombardment and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza meet the definition of genocide.
The International Court of Justice has issued three sets of provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocide, allow aid and halt operations in Rafah. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch concluded in December 2024 that Israel was committing genocide. Israeli groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel documented systematic attacks on hospitals and denial of medical aid in 2025, and they also said Israeli authorities are committing genocide in Gaza.
On September 1 the International Association of Genocide Scholars said Israeli actions meet the legal definition of genocide. On September 16 a UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, citing killings, conditions of life calculated to bring destruction and statements by senior Israeli officials. A day later, major aid agencies warned governments that inaction risked complicity.