The turkish flag at half mast in honor of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv on August 2, 2024. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90
Turkey hosted a senior Hamas delegation in its capital city, Ankara, on Saturday. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with the group, which was led by Muhammad Ismail Darwish, the head of Hamas’ political council.
Following the high-level meeting, Fidan and Darwish “strongly condemned” Israeli operations against Hamas in Gaza, claiming that the Jewish state seeks to “forcibly displace Palestinians.” They also “called for increased international pressure to ensure the unimpeded delivery of food, medicine, and essential supplies to Gaza,” according to the Turkish state media outlet TRT.
TRT reported that Turkey and Hamas “focused on coordinating humanitarian aid efforts and reinforcing international cooperation to address the dire conditions facing Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.” Hamas has systematically been stealing much of the international aid that enters the Gaza Strip.
“The discussions also highlighted Turkey’s readiness to mobilize further resources and diplomatic channels to expedite aid,” the news outlet added.
Turkey and Hamas officials reportedly discussed Judea and Samaria, internationally known as the West Bank. Turkey claimed that Israel’s “actions to cement the occupation have reached dangerous levels, posing a direct threat to long-term regional stability and peace efforts.”
“The delegation also addressed the occupation’s crimes in the West Bank, particularly in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as the organized displacement operations carried out by the occupation army in the refugee camps in the northern West Bank,” Hamas’ official social media stated.
These claims center on areas known historically as Judea and Samaria, with Jerusalem, central to the discussion, serving as their historical capital. This region constitutes the biblical heartland of the Land of Israel, deeply rooted in Jewish history and tradition.
Turkey and Hamas also called for “efforts to foster reconciliation between Palestinian factions.”
“Fidan touched on the importance of unity among Palestinian groups and said that Turkey was ready to make every contribution to efforts in this direction,” the Turkish Anadolu Agency reported.
In 2007, Hamas violently expelled its political rival, Fatah, and seized power in the Gaza Strip. Fatah currently controls the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in parts of Judea and Samaria from its administrative capital, Ramallah.
Hamas, with support from Iran, has increasingly carried out attacks against Israelis, which have also challenged the authority of the PA.
Ibrahim Kalin, the head of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization, told Hamas officials that Turkey opposes “any plans to forcibly displace the population of Gaza,” likely a veiled reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, which calls for the reconstruction of the enclave and resettlement of its population in mainly Arab and Muslim countries. Most of the Muslim world has opposed Trump’s Gaza plan.
Turkey and Israel used to have close military and diplomatic relations. However, bilateral relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply during the reign of the current anti-Israel Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Turkish president has refused to condemn the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 Israelis and has cultivated close ties with the Jihadist terrorist organization. Instead, the Turkish leader has demonized Israel and equated the Jewish state’s self-defense against Hamas with “war crimes.”
In March 2024, Erdoğan affirmed Turkey’s support for Hamas and equated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
“Netanyahu and his administration, with their crimes against humanity in Gaza, are writing their names next to Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, like today’s Nazis,” Erdoğan stated at the time.
