Israel, Turkey to hold reconciliation meeting in Rome

Israeli and Turkish teams will meet Sunday in Rome to finalize a deal to normalize relation, nearly six years after deadly raid strained relations, Israeli media reported.

Recent reports in Israeli and Turkish media said the agreement is likely to be concluded on Sunday.

If a deal is reached, it will be brought for the approval of Israel's security cabinet on Wednesday.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will depart to Rome in the afternoon, for meetings with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Relations between Israel and Turkey, former allies, broke apart after the May 2010 deadly raid by the Israeli Navy on a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla headed to the Palestinian enclave in demand to remove the Israeli blockade. Ten Turkish nationals were killed in the clashes.

The expected deal has angered families of missing Israeli civilians, who according to Israel are being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and of two dead soldiers, who were killed during the 2014 Israeli military campaign in Gaza and whose remains are also held by Hamas.

Families and dozens of supporters protested outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on Sunday morning, demanding their loved ones will be returned to Israel as part of the reconciliation deal.

Avera Mengistu, an Israeli of Ethiopian descendent, 29, and another unnamed Bedouin citizen of Israel, described as mentally ill, voluntarily crossed the security fence into Gaza in 2014.

Hamas, the Islamist organization that controls Gaza, confirmed that Mengistu was captured but said he was later released and crossed into Egypt. Hamas has never confirmed the capture of the Bedouin citizen.

In a bid to soothe the criticism, Netanyahu addressed the issue during his weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, promising that "we will neither rest nor be silent until we bring the boys back home." Endit