Turkey’s intelligence chief holds with Hamas representatives amid rising anti-Israel rhetoric from Ankara.
The head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), İbrahim Kalın, convened with senior Hamas members on Saturday to discuss aid routes into Gaza, according to JNS.
The agency released a statement condemning Israel following the meeting, accusing it of carrying out “genocidal activities.”
The meeting featured Muhammad Darwish, chairman of the Hamas Shura Council, though the location was not disclosed. According to MİT, the discussion centered on enabling humanitarian assistance to reach Gaza and assessing “efforts to halt Israel’s genocidal activities” while pushing for a “permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.”
“The latest situation in the efforts to halt Israel’s genocidal activities in Gaza and to reach a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire was evaluated,” the agency said, reiterating Ankara’s full support for Hamas’s stance against Israel.
“Turkey will always stand by the people of Gaza, who have shown great determination and patience to protect their lands, despite Israeli attacks targeting civilians and hunger policies implemented to displace the people,” the statement added.
Kalın’s engagement with Hamas comes amid increasingly hostile rhetoric from Turkish leadership, particularly from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has increased his verbal attacks on Israel since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Turkey has regularly expressed support for Hamas. Last April, Erdogan met then-Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, who was later eliminated by Israel in Tehran.
Weeks after meeting Haniyeh, Erdogan boasted of the fact that more than 1,000 members of Hamas were being treated in hospitals across Turkey and also took issue with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ reference to Hamas as a terrorist organization. Erdogan also met with senior Hamas members in Ankara in late January. The meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Kalin, and other Hamas officials.
Fidan last month discussed the latest situation in Gaza in a phone call with Khalil al-Hayya, one of the leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization.
