‘Fled to Turkey’: Hamas leaders are ‘in Erdogan’s hands’
Senior members of Hamas’s abroad leadership left Qatar last week for Turkey, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel on Sunday, after Doha said it was walking away from efforts to mediate an end to the war in Gaza.
The Arab diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, downplayed the significance of the move for the terror group, stressing that Hamas’s leadership abroad already spends much of its time in Turkey when they are not holding meetings in Qatar.
The departure of Hamas’s senior politburo from Doha was first reported by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster.
On November 8, the US revealed that it had asked Qatar to oust Hamas officials from Doha, which has hosted an office for the terror group since 2012, reportedly at Washington’s urging. The US said it made the request after Hamas rejected repeated hostage deal proposals and executed six captives, including an American citizen.
The next day, Qatar said it had halted its mediation efforts and a diplomat familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that Doha had asked Hamas leaders in late October to leave the country, though no timeline was mentioned.
Doha stressed at the time that its decision wasn’t necessarily permanent and that it would be prepared to resume mediation efforts if the sides were willing to negotiate in good faith toward a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement.
According to the diplomat who spoke at the time, Qatar decided to push out Hamas’s senior leaders on its own after determining that neither side had been willing to engage seriously in negotiations.
Turkey offers a practical option for Hamas, given that the families of many of the terror group’s diaspora leadership live there.
However, by formally hosting senior Hamas members, Ankara risks tensions with the Biden administration, which said earlier this month that none of its allies should be hosting the terror group. US President-elect Donald Trump is not expected to soften that stance when he enters office in January.
Ankara has played a nominal role in hostage talks to date, given its long-standing ties with Hamas officials. It remains to be seen whether Turkey will begin taking on a larger role in talks now that Qatar has taken a step back.
After Israel killed Hamas’s Gaza-based leader Yayha Sinwar in mid-October, the US expressed hope that it would lead to a breakthrough in negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, framing Sinwar as the main obstacle to an agreement.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt viewed the matter differently, acknowledging Sinwar’s uncompromising negotiating stances while also arguing that talks would be more difficult to hold without a centralized Hamas leadership, Arab and US officials told The Times of Israel.
Moreover, the Arab mediators have placed more blame on Israel than the US, noting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to an open-ended ceasefire and full troop withdrawal, even in exchange for all remaining hostages. In July, the premier added new conditions to an Israeli truce offer after Hamas agreed to much of the proposal.
Netanyahu’s critics have accused him of prioritizing his own political survival over the lives of the hostages, given that his far-right coalition partners have threatened to bring down the government if he agrees to proposals floated thus far.
Others have argued that the offers discussed to date fall short of Israel’s demands and would leave Hamas intact in Gaza to some degree, leaving the threat to southern Israel in place.
Netanyahu held a meeting with government ministers and top defense officials Sunday night to discuss the hostage crisis. Security chiefs were reportedly expected to warn that Israel would need to show more flexibility in talks to free the hostages, who are facing dire conditions.
According to a poll aired by Channel 12 news last week, 69 percent of Israelis said they support a hostage deal that would end the war compared to 20% who prefer continuing fighting.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Source » msn
