After a hiatus of two years, Turkey has appointed its new envoy, Ufuk Ulutas to Israel. The move is seen as an attempt to improve ties with incoming President-elect Joe Biden’s administration, a news report by Al-Monitor cited “well-placed sources”. Earlier in May 2018, Ankara recalled its ambassador over violent attacks against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip which claimed the lives of dozens of Palestinian protesters by Israeli forces amid the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. Turkey first broke off diplomatic ties with Israel in 2010 after 10 pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed by Israeli commandos who boarded a Turkish-owned flotilla trying to deliver aid and break Israel’s years-long maritime blockade of Gaza. They restored ties in 2016, but relations soured again in 2018 in the aftermath of the US embassy move.