Erdogan, Hamas Official Meet On Gaza While Abbas Slams US Veto

(Bloomberg) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Hamas’s political leader on Saturday to discuss the need for a permanent cease-fire and accelerated humanitarian aid in Gaza. 

Separately on Saturday, the head of the Palestinian Authority criticized the US veto this week at the UN Security Council of a resolution on the admission of Palestine as a full member state. 

Erdogan received Ismail Haniyeh and his delegation, including former Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, at Istanbul’s historic Dolmabahce palace. 

“It is vital that Palestinians act with unity in this process. The strongest response to Israel and the path to victory lie in unity and integrity,” the Turkish leader said, according to his directorate of communications. 

Erdogan highlighted Ankara’s diplomatic efforts aimed at brokering a pause in the six-month conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, according to a statement on X, formerly Twitter, after the 2.5 hour meeting.  

Turkey is a NATO member, but unlike the US and the European Union, doesn’t consider Hamas a terrorist organization. 

Erdogan has called Hamas militants “freedom fighters” and repeatedly criticized Israel’s conduct in the war, which was triggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which some 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage. 

Read more: Week of Iran-Israel Strikes Marks a Mideast ‘Game Changer’

Since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, which doesn’t distinguish between civilian and military casualties. 

An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah killed at least nine people, including six children, the Associated Press reported on Saturday, citing hospital officials. 

Erdogan has stopped short of cutting ties with Israel altogether.

Read more: US Vetoes UN Bid to Make Palestine a Full Member of World Body

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian Authority would “re-consider” bilateral relations with the US after Washington’s veto this week of a resolution to admit the Palestinian territories as a full UN member state.  

Thursday’s move “constitutes a blatant aggression against the rights, history, land, and sanctities of the Palestinian people, challenging the will of the international community,” Abbas told the state news agency WAFA.     

--With assistance from Fadwa Hodali.

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