Conflicting reports regarding plans by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to visit the Gaza Strip are heightening uncertainty regarding the intentions of the Islamist premier. Turkish television announced overnight that Erdogan would travel to Gaza on July 5, a report that Erdogan’s press secretary promptly shot down.

Erdogan has been criticized for threatening to go to Gaza in order to bolster his standing with hard-line domestic constituencies, and those plans have been criticized by Secretary of State John Kerry and by top officials from the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).

The United States opposes the visit, arguing that it would be a “distraction” from efforts to revive the peace process and could damage the rapprochement between Israel and Turkey which was personally brokered by President Barack Obama in March.

Meanwhile progress in negotiating compensation for the deaths of nine people who died fighting Israeli commandos while trying to breach Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has stalled. Israel agreed to compensate their families as part of a reconciliation deal with Turkey that saw Erdogan outmaneuvered on several key long-standing demands. Turkey was almost immediately criticized for backsliding on the terms of the deal, and Ankara has yet to fulfill its commitments under the agreement.

Despite the fact that Israel apologized to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara incident some three months ago, Ankara has yet to fulfill any of the commitments it took upon itself as part of the reconciliation agreement brokered by US President Barack Obama, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday.

Senior Israeli officials who are familiar with the situation described Turkey’s conduct as humiliating and disrespectful, adding that it exposes IDF soldiers and officers who took part in the 2010 raid on the Gaza-bound Turkish ship to lawsuits by the victims’ families. Nine Turkish nationals were killed during the commando attack on the vessel.

[Photo: Kimse / Wiki Commons]