Israeli minister slams Turkey after its FM meets new Hamas leader

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli on Friday sharply criticized Turkey after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met in Ankara with a Hamas delegation led by the terrorist group’s new leader, Khalil al-Hayya.

In a post on X, Chikli accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government of becoming “the command center for Hamas’s rapists and murderers,” saying that the Islamist group’s operatives live comfortably in Turkish hotels while planning terrorist attacks in Europe.

“Erdoğan and Fidan are Hamas,” Chikli concluded.

According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, Fidan congratulated al-Hayya on his election as head of Hamas’s Political Bureau and reaffirmed Ankara’s support for what he described as the “just” Palestinian cause.

Fidan also reportedly told the Hamas delegation that Turkey would continue supporting Gaza and that he appreciated the role the terrorist organization has played in efforts to achieve peace.

The meeting appeared to be al-Hayya’s first high-level diplomatic engagement since he was elected Hamas political chief on July 20.

According to Anadolu, al-Hayya briefed Fidan on developments in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, accused Israel of expanding communities and attacking holy sites in Jerusalem, and said Hamas remained committed to ceasefire negotiations and reconciliation efforts with other Palestinian factions.

Turkish pro-government newspaper Yeni Şafak separately reported that Fidan reaffirmed Ankara’s commitment to supporting the Palestinian cause through diplomatic, political and humanitarian channels.

Al-Hayya, 65, left Gaza before Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and has since been based primarily in Qatar. He has led Hamas’s negotiating team in ceasefire talks with the United States.

In January 2025, al-Hayya described the Oct. 7 massacre, in which Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza, as “a source of pride for our people … to be passed down from generation to generation.”

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