Erdogan to host Hamas chief Haniyeh in Turkey this weekend
Qatar-based Palestinian terror leader to visit Istanbul days after meeting with Turkish foreign minister in Qatar
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he will host Ismail Haniyeh, the Qatar-based leader of Hamas, in Turkey this weekend.
“The leader of the Palestinian cause will be my guest this weekend,” Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel’s conflict in Gaza, told lawmakers.
“Even if only I, Tayyip Erdogan, remain, I will continue as long as God gives me my life, to defend the Palestinian struggle and to be the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people,” the president said, calling Hamas a “resistance group.”
Erdogan did not say where he would meet the Hamas leader, but NTV television reported that they would hold talks on Saturday at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.
Their last meeting was in July 2023, when Erdogan hosted Haniyeh and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the presidential palace in Ankara. But Haniyeh met Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Turkey on January 2, the government said.
A Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters that Haniyeh and Fidan met again in Qatar on Tuesday and discussed humanitarian aid to Gaza, ceasefire efforts and hostages ahead of his trip to Turkey.
Erdogan has been one of the strongest critics of Israel since the start of the Gaza war, which was sparked by the terrorist organization’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered and 253 kidnapped.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza claims that more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the war, but the number cannot be independently verified, and is believed to include more than 13,000 Hamas operatives Israel says it has killed in Gaza. Since the start of the ground operation, 260 IDF soldiers have been killed fighting in the Strip.
Qatar, a mediator between Israel and Hamas, acknowledged Wednesday that negotiations to pause fighting in Gaza and free the hostages were “stalling.”
The Turkish leader has forged friendly ties with Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar.
Last week, Erdogan offered Haniyeh, 62, condolences for the death of his three sons and some of his grandchildren in an Israeli strike in Gaza.
Erdogan has called Israel a “terrorist state” and accused it of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza. He has called Hamas “liberators” or “mujahideen” fighting for their land.
