Plane carrying 11 released Palestinians arrives in Ankara

Plane carrying 11 released Palestinians arrives in Ankara

A plane carrying 11 released Palestinian prisoners from Cairo as part of the captive swap landed in Ankara at 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told reporters earlier on Tuesday that a Turkish plane was en route to Cairo to collect the group of Palestinians as part of the thousand-for-one prisoner exchange being carried out on Tuesday. He said 10 Palestinians would come to Turkey but later Turkish news channels reported that 11 Palestinian prisoners, including a female prisoner, was headed to Ankara. Palestinian Ambassador to Turkey, Nabil Marouf, met Palestinian prisoners in the airport. Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and hundreds of Palestinians crossed Israel's borders in opposite directions on Tuesday under the deal. Some 40 of the Palestinians were being sent to Turkey, Syria and Qatar. "Around 10 Palestinians are expected to come to Turkey in the prisoner swap framework, we see this as an important contribution to the peace process," he told reporters. "We regard the issue as a humanitarian one. It is about 1,027 Palestinians reuniting with their families as well as one Israeli soldier reuniting with his family," Davutoğlu said. "Turkey is a country which (the Palestinians) should regard as their homeland." Davutoğlu rebuffed allegations that the Palestinians could pose a threat to Turkey. "Regardless of whether we see the alleged crimes committed by them as a crime, this deal with Israel amounts to (the crimes) being written off," he said. The minister said he had held talks with a Hamas delegation late Monday to discuss the transfer of the freed Palestinians to Turkey. He said he also discussed the swap deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday. Turkey's once-close ties with fellow regional power Israel have deteriorated sharply since Israeli naval commandos killed nine Turks in May 2010 in a raid on a ship carrying aid to the Gaza Strip. Turkey downgraded diplomatic ties with Israel and halted defence trade after the Jewish state confirmed last month it would not apologise for the raid.