Two sons of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas’ political bureau who was recently assassinated in Iran, met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday.
Abdusselam and Hammam Haniyeh were Erdoğan’s first guests as the president arrived in Istanbul from the southern province of Adana where he attended an event.
Erdoğan extended his condolences for Haniyeh during the meeting which was also attended by Ibrahim Kalın, head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and president’s chief adviser Sefer Turan.
The late Palestinian leader, a father of 13, lost three sons earlier this month in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Haniyeh, who frequently traveled due to threats on his life and extensive work for diplomatic efforts to end Israeli attacks, was killed in Tehran on July 31 where he attended an inauguration ceremony for the country’s president-elect. Haniyeh’s assassination renewed concerns of a spillover of the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict but also triggered a new wave of rallies in solidarity with Palestine as the late leader called before his death. Türkiye hosted nationwide solidarity rallies following Haniyeh’s assassination.
Though Erdoğan did not attend Haniyeh’s funeral in Qatar, Türkiye was represented by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan while Erdoğan heaped praise on Haniyeh. "Anyone who knew Ismail Haniyeh or had worked with him even a little would know very well what a courageous advocate he was,” the president recently said in a speech.
Hamas is recognized as a liberation movement by Türkiye and Ankara often decries the West for portraying them as "terrorists" and siding with Israel’s indiscriminate attacks in the Gaza Strip. In his first message upon Haniyeh’s killing, Erdoğan condemned the “perfidious assassination of a brother by the Zionist barbarity.”
Ismail Haniyeh briefly stayed in Türkiye long before a new round of conflict began between Palestine and Israel in October 2023 and last visited the country in April where he was received by Erdoğan. It was also Erdoğan who brought together Haniyeh and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a bid to mend ties between rival Palestinian factions.
