Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met in Ankara with a Hamas delegation led by the terrorist organization’s newly elected leader, Khalil al-Hayya, his office said on Wednesday.
During the meeting, Fidan reiterated Turkey’s strong support for what he described as the “just” Palestinian cause, Foreign Ministry sources told Ankara’s state-run Anadolu Agency outlet.
The sources said Fidan congratulated al-Hayya on his new position, telling the Hamas delegation that Ankara would continue its support for Gaza, and expressing his “appreciation” for the role Hamas has played in peace efforts.
Al-Hayya, 65, left the Gaza Strip before Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and has mostly been based in Qatar, though he has also made visits to Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. He has headed Hamas’s negotiating team in ceasefire talks with the United States.
In January 2025, al-Hayya called the Oct. 7 massacre, in which some 1,200 people, primarily Israeli civilians, were killed, “a source of pride for our people ... to be passed down from generation to generation.”
