Top officials from Turkey and the Zionist entity have begun new closed-door talks on a deal to normalize ties more than half a decade after relations were downgraded.

Top officials from Turkey and the Zionist entity have begun new closed-door talks on a deal to normalize ties more than half a decade after relations were downgraded, a report said Thursday.

Delegations led by powerful Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and Joseph Ciechanover, an advisor to Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Zionist National Security Advisor Jacob Nagel started talks in Geneva late on Wednesday, the Turkish NTV television channel reported.

NATO member Turkey was a key regional ally of the Zionist entity until the two parties fell out in 2010 over the deadly storming by occupation commandos of a Turkish aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, bound for Gaza.

Turkey has repeatedly made clear three conditions for a normalization: the lifting of the Gaza blockade, compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims and an apology for the incident.

The occupation entity has already apologized and negotiations appear to have made progress on compensation, leaving the blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip the main hurdle.