Fidan meets Hamas officials, vows to keep spotlight on Gaza

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has told a visiting Hamas delegation that Türkiye would not allow recent regional tensions to "overshadow the genocide in Gaza."

Fidan met with Hamas Shura Council head Muhammad Ismail Darwish and his delegation in Ankara to discuss developments in ceasefire negotiations and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Turkish diplomatic sources said on July 2.

“The priority of Türkiye is to stop the massacre in Gaza and to ensure the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid,” Fidan said during the meeting. He stressed that Türkiye “will not allow recent tensions in the region to divert attention from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

Reiterating Ankara’s long-standing position, Fidan said Palestine must be seen as a unified whole — comprising Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem — and vowed that Türkiye would continue to “strongly support and defend the Palestinian cause until Palestine is free.”

Meanwhile, four Palestinian patients and seven of their companions were evacuated from Gaza and brought to Türkiye as part of a medical transfer operation coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 2.

The evacuees crossed into Jordan via the Allenby Bridge at the Jordan-Israel border, where they were received by Turkish diplomatic missions in Amman and Jerusalem.

They traveled to Türkiye aboard a scheduled Turkish Airlines flight via Istanbul and arrived in Ankara on July 2. The group was transferred to Etlik City Hospital for treatment, officials said.