Turkish official denies report Hamas leadership was kicked out of country

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a press conference after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, at the presidential palace, in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, June 28, 2021. (Dalati Nohra/Lebanese Official Government via AP)
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a press conference after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, at the presidential palace, in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, June 28, 2021. (Dalati Nohra/Lebanese Official Government via AP)

A Turkish government official tells The Times of Israel that Al Monitor reports that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan kicked the Hamas leadership, including Ismail Haniyeh, out of the country are “not true.”

Al-Monitor journalist Fehim Tastekin claimed that Haniyeh was “politely sent away” by Turkish authorities after October 7, when a video emerged of Haniyeh offering a thanksgiving prayer while details of Hamas’s barbarism against Israeli civilians were sweeping through world capitals and the media.

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