Türkiye and the Levant

Turkey is negotiating with Qatar and Oman to acquire used Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets as part of its effort to bolster its air force capabilities. Following a three-day tour of Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman last week in which he oversaw the signing of several agreements, including in the defense sector, President  Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey aims to purchase dozens of Eurofighters and other advanced jets as a stopgap measure to strengthen its fleet until its domestically developed fifth-generation KAAN fighter jet becomes operational.

Hamas freed the last living Israeli hostages from Gaza on Monday 13 October under a ceasefire deal and Israel sent home busloads of Palestinian detainees, as U.S. President Donald Trump declared the end of the two-year long war in the Middle East. Hours later, Trump convened Muslim and European leaders in Egypt to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip and the possibility of a wider regional peace, even as Hamas and Israel, both absent from the gathering, are yet to agree on the next steps. The Israeli military said it had received all 20 hostages confirmed to be alive, after their transfer form Gaza by the Red Cross. The announcement prompted cheering, hugging and weeping among thousands waiting at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv. In Gaza, thousands of relatives, many weeping with joy, gathered at a hospital where buses brought home some of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees to be freed by Israel as part of the accord. "The skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace," Trump told the Knesset, Israel's parliament, saying a "long nightmare" for both Israelis and Palestinians was over.