A more likely option would be Türkiye. As a NATO member and a Sunni-majority country, this will provide the group with a base from which to operate in relative safety. In April, Erdogan hosted then-Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and his delegation in Istanbul to discuss “what needs to be done to ensure adequate and uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and a fair and lasting peace process in the region.” We talked about “doing it.” .
The move is also likely to be welcomed by Ankara, which has often sought to position itself as an intermediary between East and West.
Key Hamas figures who frequently appear in the media, such as Osama Hamdan and Taher al-Nunu, have been staying in Istanbul for over a month.
Their extended stay in Türkiye marks a departure from past visits that were usually limited to short stays.
The personal safety of Hamas’s leadership is now seen as a major concern for Hamas, with two leaders killed in less than four months. In addition to Haniyeh’s death in July, Israel in October killed Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
According to the European Council of Foreign Relations, “Hamas has adopted an interim model of collective leadership to mitigate the impact of future Israeli assassinations.”
HA Hellyer, a senior research fellow at the Royal Allied Studies Institute (Rusi), told the BBC: “No place would be better able to protect Israel from assassination attempts than in Doha, where the US has the largest military base in the region.” . , did it”.
The latest move comes as U.S. officials have grown increasingly frustrated with the approach the Israeli government has taken to end the war. In October, the U.S. secretaries of state and defense said Israel must allow more humanitarian aid to the region by November 12 or face unspecified policy “impacts.”
Last weekend, multiple UN officials warned that the situation in northern Gaza was “apocalyptic.” On Saturday the Independent Famine Review Commission said it was “very likely that famine is imminent in the region”.
President Joe Biden’s relationship with Netanyahu has deteriorated over the course of the war in Gaza, amid growing pressure from Washington to improve the humanitarian situation in Palestine and seek some kind of negotiated solution.
