Hamas’s senior leadership has relocated from Qatar to Turkey, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan News reported on Sunday evening.
The report cited unnamed Israeli sources as confirming the move, which was said to have taken place in “recent days”.
According to the broadcaster, the development could have “dramatic” consequences for the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, which have been mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
However, a Turkish diplomatic source has dismissed report of the move, telling Reuters: “Hamas Political Bureau members visit Turkey from time to time. Claims that indicate the Hamas Political Bureau has moved to Turkey do not reflect the truth.”
Earlier this month, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry claimed that media reports that the Gulf state had withdrawn from its mediation role and closed the terrorist group’s Doha offices were inaccurate.
Ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari said: “The State of Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago, during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round. ”
Qatar would resume its efforts “when the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war” he said.
A senior US official told Reuters ten days ago that Hamas leaders “should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner,” after the terror organisation rejected repeated proposals to release the hostages.
“We made that clear to Qatar following Hamas’s rejection weeks ago of another hostage release proposal,” the official said, according to the news agency.
The Turkish government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has long harboured Hamas. In 2022, the terror group marked the 10th anniversary of the official establishment of its offices in Istanbul.
According to a 2021 report by The Jerusalem Centre for Security and Foreign Affairs, Hamas’s headquarters in Istanbul has directed hundreds of terrorist attacks against Israelis and laundered millions of dollars.
“Turkey collaborates with terror organisations on both the ideological and operational levels. Terrorists working on Turkish soil establish infrastructures and plan terror attacks against Israel,” the report claimed.
In April, Ankara invited Ismail Haniyeh, then the head of Hamas’s political bureau in Doha, to stay in the country, praising the top terrorist as a “leader of the Palestinian struggle”.
Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in July.
Erdoğan has become more hostile toward Israel and closer to Hamas since the terrorist group’s assault on southern Israel on October 7 last year.
In May, Erdoğan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “vampire who feeds on blood,” urging Muslims to fight the Jewish state.
Two months later, Erdoğan told Newsweek that Palestinian terrorists from Gaza were “simply defending their homes, streets and homeland.”
Turkey, a NATO member, has also been blocking all partnerships or advancement of Israeli involvement with the global military alliance, Reuters reported in August, citing anonymous sources.