BEIRUT: The commander of Kurdish forces that control northeast Syria said on Friday that his group is in direct contact with Turkiye and that he would be open to improving ties, including by meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The public comments represented a significant diplomatic overture by Mazloum Abdi, whose Syrian Democratic Forces fought Turkish troops and Ankara-backed Syrian rebels during Syria’s 14-year civil war.
Turkiye has said the main Kurdish group at the core of the SDF is indistinguishable from the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which decided earlier this month to disband after 40 years of conflict with Turkiye.
Abdi told regional broadcaster Shams TV in an interview aired on Friday that his group was in touch with Turkiye, without saying how long the communication channels had been open.
“We have direct ties, direct channels of communication with Turkiye, as well as through mediators, and we hope that these ties are developed,” Abdi said. There was no immediate comment from Turkiye on Abdi’s remarks.
He noted his forces and Turkish fighters “fought long wars against each other” but that a temporary truce had brought a halt to those clashes for the last two months. Abdi said he hoped the truce could become permanent.
When asked whether he was planning to meet Erdogan, Abdi said he had no current plans to do so but “I am not opposed... We are not in a state of war with Turkiye and in the future, ties could be developed between us. We’re open to this.”
The Al-Monitor news website reported on Friday that Turkiye had proposed a meeting between Abdi and a top Turkish official, possibly Turkiye’s foreign minister or its intelligence chief.
A Turkish diplomatic source denied the report, saying “the claims about Turkiye and our country’s authorities” in the story were “not true,” without elaborating.
In December, Turkiye and the SDF agreed on a US-mediated ceasefire after fighting broke out as rebel groups advanced on Damascus and overthrew Bashar Assad.
Abdi in March signed a deal with Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to incorporate the semi-autonomous administration of northeast Syria into the main state institutions based in Damascus.
On Thursday, Erdogan accused the SDF of “stalling” implementation of that deal.
In the interview, Abdi denied accusations that the SDF was in contact with Israel.
“People have accused us of this. In this interview, I am saying publicly that we have no ties with Israel,” he said.
But he said his group supported good ties with Syria’s neighbors. When asked if that included Israel, Abdi responded, “with everyone.”

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel on Friday said Hamas must accept a hostage deal in Gaza or “be annihilated,” as US President Donald Trump announced that a ceasefire agreement was “very close.”

It came amid dire conditions on the ground, with the United Nations warning that Gaza’s entire population was at risk of famine.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hamas must agree to a ceasefire proposal presented by US envoy Steve Witkoff or be destroyed, after the Palestinian militant group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands.

“The Hamas murderers will now be forced to choose: accept the terms of the ‘Witkoff Deal’ for the release of the hostages – or be annihilated.”

Israel has repeatedly said that the destruction of Hamas was a key aim of the war.

Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war in Gaza have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in March following a short-lived truce.

In the United States, Trump told reporters “they’re very close to an agreement on Gaza,” adding: “We’ll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow.”

Food shortages in Gaza persist, with aid only trickling in after the partial lifting by Israel of a more than two-month blockade.

Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, called Gaza “the hungriest place on Earth.”

“It’s the only defined area – a country or defined territory within a country – where you have the entire population at risk of famine,” he said.

Later, the UN condemned the “looting of large quantities of medical equipment” and other supplies “intended for malnourished children” from one of its Gaza warehouses by armed individuals.

Aid groups have warned that desperation for food and medicine among Gazans was causing security to deteriorate.

Israel has doubled down on its settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, while defying calls from French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders for a two-state solution.

This week Israel announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the Palestinian territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

London said the move was a “deliberate obstacle” to Palestinian statehood while Egypt called it “a provocative and blatant new violation of international law and Palestinian rights.”

The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which includes Egypt, also condemned Israel’s decision.

On Friday, Katz vowed to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the West Bank.

Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law and seen as a major obstacle to a lasting peace in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Katz framed the move as a direct rebuke to Macron and others pushing for recognition of a Palestinian state.

Macron on Friday said that recognition of a Palestinian state, with some conditions, was “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity.”

Israel’s foreign ministry accused the French president of undertaking a “crusade against the Jewish state.”

Separately, a diplomatic source said that Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan would make the first visit of its kind to the West Bank on Sunday.

The White House announced on Thursday that Israel had “signed off” on a new ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas.

The Palestinian group said the deal failed to satisfy its demands, but stopped short of rejecting it outright, saying it was “holding consultations” on the proposal.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said that at least 45 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Friday, including seven in a strike targeting a family home in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Palestinians sobbed over the bodies of their loved ones at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital following the strike, AFPTV footage showed.

“These were civilians and were sleeping at their homes,” said neighbor Mahmud Al-Ghaf, describing “children in pieces.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said separately that the air force had hit “dozens of targets” across Gaza over the past day.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Friday that at least 4,058 people had been killed since Israel resumed operations on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,321, mostly civilians.

Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.