- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lambasted Israel for its “aggression” against Hamas in Gaza and called, “Tel Aviv is ‘acting like a terrorist organization’ and ‘committing crimes against humanity'”.
- While addressing the Parliament, Turkish President Erdogan called Hamas a “patriotic organization” and unequivocally cancelled his scheduled state visit to Israel.
- Erdogan said, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has abused Turkey’s goodwill”.
- Erdogan reiterated that Hamas has been working as “liberators” fighting for their own land.
- Hezbollah group held talks with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in his strongest comments yet on the Gaza conflict, said on Wednesday the Palestinian militant group Hamas was not a terrorist organization but a liberation group fighting to protect Palestinian lands and people.
Speaking to lawmakers from his ruling AK Party, Erdogan also called for an immediate ceasefire between Israeli and Palestinian forces and said Muslim countries must act together to secure a lasting peace in the region. “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to protect its lands and people,” he said, using an Arabic word denoting those who fight for their faith.
Erdogan also slammed Western powers that have voiced support for Israel’s retaliation against Hamas, saying “Western tears shed for Israel are a manifestation of fraud”.
Many of Turkey’s NATO allies consider Hamas a terrorist group, and Erdogan’s comments drew a swift rebuke from Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who said they were “grave and disgusting and did not help with de-escalation”. Turkey has condemned the civilian deaths that resulted from Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampages in southern Israel but also urged Israel to react in a restrained way.
It has since strongly condemned Israel’s heavy bombardment of Gaza, which is controlled by the militant Islamist group while offering to mediate in the conflict and sending several shipments of humanitarian aid.
Erdogan accused Israel of taking advantage of Turkey’s good intentions. Turkey had previously been working to mend long-strained ties with Israel and Erdogan said he had now cancelled a planned trip to Israel because of the events in Gaza.
Turkey, which hosts members of Hamas on its territory, backs a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Earlier today, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group held talks on Wednesday with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in a key meeting of three top anti-Israel militant groups amid the war raging in Gaza.
A brief statement following the meeting said that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed with Hamas’ Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad’s leader Ziad al-Nakhleh on the next steps that the three — along with other Iran-backed militants — should take at this “sensitive stage.” Their goal, according to the statement that was carried on Hezbollah-run and Lebanese state media, was to achieve “a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine” and halt Israel’s “treacherous and brutal aggression against our oppressed and steadfast people in Gaza and the West Bank”.
(With inputs from agencies)
