Erdoğan says Turkey firmly backs Hamas leaders

Turkish President Recep Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that Ankara “firmly backs” the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Agence France-Presse reported.

“No one can make us treat Hamas as a terrorist organization,” he said in a speech in İstanbul. “Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them.”

Erdoğan has been one of the most virulent critics of Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, which began after an October 7 attack by Hamas in Israel that claimed at least 1,160 lives, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel has responded with a relentless ground and air offensive that the health ministry in Gaza said has killed at least 30,878 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave, mostly women and children.

Erdoğan has called Israel a “terrorist state” and accused it of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza.