Turkey is allowing Hamas' operatives to plot terror attacks while on Turkish soil, a report said late Tuesday.
According to the British daily The Telegraph, citing Israeli police sources, transcripts of Israeli police interrogations with suspects show that senior Hamas operatives are using Turkey’s largest city to direct operations in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, including an assassination attempt earlier this year on the mayor of Jerusalem.
Israel has repeatedly told Turkey that Hamas is using its territory to plan attacks, but last weekend Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, and Turkish intelligence agents maintain close contact with the group’s operatives in Istanbul. "We will keep on supporting our brothers in Palestine," Erdogan said.
Turkey is already facing questions from Western allies over its support for extremist rebels in northern Syria and over its commitment to NATO after buying a Russian missile system.
Turkey agreed in a US-brokered 2015 deal with Israel to stop Hamas planning attacks from its soil but has consistently failed to honor the agreement, Israeli officials said.
The issue has fuelled hostility between the two states, even though they maintain diplomatic relations.
The Telegraph reported a Turkish diplomatic source denying Hamas was planning attacks from Turkey. He said the group was "not a terrorist organization" but a legitimate Palestinian political party. Hamas denied planning attacks from Turkish soil and dismissed Israel’s complaints as "baseless allegations" designed to damage political relations with Turkey.
"Hamas’s resistance activities are conducted only in the land of occupied Palestine," a Hamas spokesman said.
