From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 21, 2024
Hamas leader Haniyeh said to meet Turkish FM to discuss hostages, ceasefire
Hamas’s Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh has held a meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, diplomatic sources say, in the first official contact between the two for more than three months.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Haniyeh on Saturday in Turkey, the sources say.
The potential release of hostages held in Gaza, along with the establishment of “a ceasefire as quickly as possible,” were the main topic of discussions, according to one of the sources.
The source says that during the meeting, the two sides also discussed “increasing humanitarian aid… and a two-state solution for a permanent peace.”
Fidan and Haniyeh last had official contact in a phone call on October 16.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza was triggered by the October 7 terror onslaught in southern Israel in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into the country by land, air and sea, slaughtering some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seizing around 240 hostages under the cover of thousands of rockets.
In response to the deadly assault, Israel launched an aerial campaign and subsequent ground operation, vowing to destroy Hamas and end its 16-year rule in the Gaza Strip.
Following the outbreak of war, Israel recalled its diplomats from Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of committing war crimes.
Turkey’s strong relationship with Hamas has long remained a major sore point between the two countries, with Erdogan refusing to cut ties and allowing the terror group to continue to operate from an office in Istanbul.
