Hamas leaders reportedly leave Qatar for Turkey

Hamas’ top leadership has moved from Qatar to Turkey, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan News reported Sunday night.

The report cited unnamed Israeli sources to confirm the move, which is said to have taken place in “recent days”.

According to the television company, the development could have “dramatic” consequences for the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, which have been brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt.

However, a Turkish diplomatic source dismissed the report of the move, telling Reuters: “Hamas Political Bureau members visit Turkey from time to time. Claims indicating that the Hamas Political Bureau has moved to Turkey do not reflect the truth.”

Earlier this month, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry claimed that media reports that the Gulf state had withdrawn from its mediation role and closed the terrorist group’s offices in Doha were inaccurate.

Ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari said: “The State of Qatar informed the parties 10 days ago, during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would suspend its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round.”

Qatar will resume its efforts “when the parties show their will and seriousness to end the brutal war”, he said.

A senior US official told Reuters ten days ago that Hamas leaders “should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any US partner” after the terrorist organization rejected repeated offers to release the hostages.

“We made it clear to Qatar after Hamas’ rejection of another proposal for the release of hostages weeks ago,” the official said, according to the news agency.

The Turkish government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has long harbored Hamas. In 2022, the terrorist group marked the 10th anniversary of the official establishment of their offices in Istanbul.

According to a 2021 report by The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, Hamas’ headquarters in Istanbul has directed hundreds of terrorist attacks against Israelis and laundered millions of dollars.

“Turkey cooperates with terrorist organizations at both ideological and operational levels. Terrorists operating on Turkish soil establish infrastructures and plan terrorist attacks against Israel,” the report claimed.

In April, Ankara invited Ismail Haniyeh, then the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Doha, to stay in the country and praised the top terrorist as a “leader of the Palestinian struggle”.

Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in July.

Erdoğan has become more hostile to Israel and closer to Hamas since the terror group’s attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.

In May, Erdoğan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “vampire who feeds on blood” and called on Muslims to fight the Jewish state.

Two months later, Erdoğan told Newsweek that Palestinian terrorists from Gaza were “simply defending their homes, streets and homeland.”

Turkey, a NATO member, has also blocked any partnership or promotion of Israeli involvement with the global military alliance, Reuters reported in August, citing anonymous sources.