Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said Gaza must be part of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state once the Israel-Hamas war is over, adding Ankara would not support models “gradually erasing Palestinians from history”, Reuters reports.

Speaking to media on a return flight from Kazakhstan, Erdogan also said his intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin was in contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities, as well as Hamas, broadcaster Haberturk and others reported.

He said he would not take Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a counterpart, but added Ankara would not sever its ties with Israel either, according to Haberturk.