Türkiye’s ruling party on Wednesday warned that Israel has “pulled the trigger” for a new regional war with the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
Speaking at a news conference in the capital, Ankara, Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesperson Ömer Çelik lamented the international community’s “indifference” to Israel’s massacres in Gaza that he said “brought things to this level.”
Calling Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration “the biggest obstacle to world peace,” Çelik stressed that Israel is threatening the national security of all regional nations.
“This attack proves that the genocidal network is only going to increase its tyranny from now on,” Çelik added.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hamas confirmed the death of Haniyeh at a residence he was staying at in Tehran. The attack took place hours after he attended an inauguration ceremony in Parliament for new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. He had also met Khamenei.
Iranian state media said Haniyeh, who was based in Qatar and had led the Palestinian resistance group's political operations for years, was hit "by an object from the air" at 2 a.m. (10:30 p.m. GMT Tuesday).
Hamas said it was an Israeli airstrike, but Israel has made no immediate announcement about the assassination, while many countries have warned that it will have a major impact on efforts to bring a cease-fire in the Gaza war.
The incident highlighted the region's ongoing tensions and the volatile situation surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the precarious Lebanon front.
“Initial reports say the assassination was carried out with a missile from another country. If this is true then it demonstrates Israel’s genocidal network,” Çelik argued.
Türkiye will also invite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address the Turkish Parliament in the coming days, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş was cited as saying on Wednesday.
"If there are no issues, we will invite Mr. Abbas to the Turkish Parliament General Assembly and he will explain the Palestinian cause in front of lawmakers," Kurtulmuş was quoted as saying.
Haniyeh was a frequent visitor to Türkiye, which has been a vocal critic of Israel’s massacres in Palestine since Oct. 7, 2023, in response to an offensive by Hamas and stands among a few countries recognizing his group as a resistance movement.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who met Haniyeh in Istanbul as recently as April, separately condemned the assassination, calling it “perfidious” and sending his condolences to Palestine and Haniyeh’s family.
“This assassination aims to sabotage the noble resistance of Gaza and the righteous struggle of Palestinians,” Erdoğan said in a statement on X.
He emphasized that this assassination mirrors previous attacks on Palestinian figures like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz al-Rantisi, asserting that "Zionist barbarism will once again fail to achieve its goals."
He called for a united stance from the Islamic world to end the oppression in Gaza and reaffirmed Türkiye's commitment to supporting the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Erdoğan has been warning of a spillover of the Gaza conflict since Oct. 7 as Israel massacred nearly 40,000 Palestinians and triggered a humanitarian disaster in Gaza. He recently warned, “If Türkiye gets stronger, Israel cannot do what it is doing in Palestine now.”
His government cut off commercial ties with Israel and has mobilized to launch reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Erdoğan brought together Haniyeh and Abbas in Ankara recently in a rare meeting.
