A senior Hamas delegation met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday in Doha, Qatar, to discuss recent developments concerning the situation in Gaza, the Xinhua news agency reported.
According to a statement released by Hamas, the group’s delegation was led by Muhammad Darwish, head of Hamas' Shura Council.
Discussions focused on "the grave developments in the humanitarian situation in Gaza”, the statement said, accusing Israel of “the continued crime of starvation and the prevention of food aid from entering Gaza”.
The delegation reportedly updated the Turkish official on the status of ceasefire negotiations and provided details of Hamas’ recent diplomatic mission to Cairo.
Sunday’s meeting is the latest in a series of meetings between Turkish officials and Hamas members.
Last week, the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), İbrahim Kalın, convened with senior Hamas members to discuss aid routes into Gaza.
The agency released a statement condemning Israel following the meeting, accusing it of carrying out “genocidal activities.”
Kalın’s engagement with Hamas comes amid increasingly hostile rhetoric from Turkish leadership, particularly from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has increased his verbal attacks on Israel since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Turkey has regularly expressed support for Hamas. Last April, Erdogan met then-Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, who was later eliminated by Israel in Tehran.
Weeks after meeting Haniyeh, Erdogan boasted of the fact that more than 1,000 members of Hamas were being treated in hospitals across Turkey and also took issue with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ reference to Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Erdogan also met with senior Hamas members in Ankara in late January. The meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Kalin, and other Hamas officials.
Fidan last month discussed the latest situation in Gaza in a phone call with Khalil al-Hayya, one of the leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization.