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BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein on Sunday called on Kurdish separatist fighters who have withdrawn to the country’s north after waging a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye to disarm.

Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, began laying down its arms in July in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq after withdrawing its fighters from Turkiye to Iraq as part of a peace effort with Ankara.

But armed “PKK elements” remain in northern Iraq, notably in Sinjar and Makhmur, according to Hussein.

Speaking on Sunday during a joint news conference in Baghdad with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, Hussein said: “We support the agreement between Turkiye and the PKK and look forward to the implementation of this agreement and the resolution of the PKK issue.”

He said the matter of the “PKK elements” in northern Iraq was discussed with Fidan.

Turkiye hopes that the PKK will end its armed operations in Iraq and withdraw from there, as well as in parts of Iran and Syria, Fidan said.

“We are working closely with Iraq, and I thank both Iraq and the Kurdistan region for their cooperation in this regard,” he said.

Sabri Ok, a member of the Kurdish umbrella organization, the Kurdistan Communities Union, this week said all PKK forces in Turkiye were being withdrawn to areas in northern Iraq “to avoid clashes or provocations.”

Hussein said 26 bilateral memorandums of understanding were being signed related to energy and security, as well as a critical water rehabilitation agreement, following talks last month.

Flights between Iraq and Turkiye are set to resume on Monday, ending a suspension that lasted over two years, said an official at Sulaymaniyah International Airport.

The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict, bringing to an end four decades of hostilities with Turkiye, 

The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, health authorities said, as Israel and Hamas traded blame for violations of the tenuous truce that has mostly halted two years of war.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck a militant who was posing a threat to its forces. Al-Ahli Hospital said one man was killed in the airstrike near a vegetable market in the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.

“There are still Hamas pockets in the areas under our control in Gaza, and we are systematically eliminating them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks at the start of a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

Hamas released what it described as a list of violations of the ceasefire by Israel. Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, denied that Hamas fighters had violated the truce by attacking Israeli soldiers.

VIOLENCE NOT COMPLETELY HALTED

The ceasefire, which came into effect on October 10, has calmed most fighting, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the ruins of their homes in Gaza. Israel has withdrawn troops from positions in cities and more aid has been allowed in.

Militants turned over all 20 living hostages held in Gaza in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and war-time detainees held by Israel. Hamas has also agreed to turn over bodies of hostages, a process which is still incomplete and which it says is difficult, while Israel accuses it of stalling.

But violence has not completely halted. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 236 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce, nearly half of them in a single day last week when Israel retaliated for an attack on its troops. Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed and it has targeted scores of fighters.

The ceasefire was mediated by the United States, and both sides have appealed to Washington to halt violations.

The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, met on Saturday with Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir during a visit to the region to discuss Gaza, the Israeli military said.

Netanyahu said any Israeli action in Gaza is reported to Washington. Hamas said the United States was not doing enough to ensure Israel abides by the ceasefire agreement.

About 200 US troops have set up base in southern Israel to monitor the ceasefire and help make plans for an international force to stabilize the enclave, as foreseen in later phases of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.

There has been little sign of progress on the next stages so far, and major obstacles still lie ahead, including the disarmament of Hamas and a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.