Hamas is Planning Attacks Against Israel from Inside Turkey and Erdogan is Allowing it - Report

JERUSALEM, Israel – Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul last weekend was more than just a photo opportunity, but represented a much deeper friendship between the terror group and the United State’s NATO ally.  

A new bombshell report from The Telegraph reveals that Turkey is welcoming and allowing numerous senior Hamas terrorists into the country to remotely plan potentially deadly attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank from the safety of Istanbul.

Transcripts from Israeli authorities show Hamas terrorists planned failed assassinations against Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat, former Likud Knesset member Yehuda Glick, and Israeli police chief Roni Alscheich. Another failed plot included an offer by Hamas to pay $20,000 to the family of a would-be suicide bomber.

"Israel is extremely concerned that Turkey is allowing Hamas terrorists to operate from its territory, in planning and engaging in terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians," Israel’s foreign ministry told the paper.

Although Turkey signed a US-brokered deal in 2015 to prevent Hamas from planning attacks in the country, Hamas officials are free to travel in and out of Turkey through Egypt, the report claims.

The Telegraph reports that Hamas often offers money to potential terrorists or their families and then sends them to Turkey to be trained in how to commit a terror attack.

Israeli and Egyptian intelligence records also show that at least 11 senior Hamas terrorists have left Gaza’s economic and humanitarian disaster to find sanctuary in Turkey. One of those terrorists includes Abdel Rahman Ghanimat, the former leader of the “Surif Cell”, which was responsible for several deadly suicide bombings against Israeli civilians in the 90s.

Turkish officials denied the reports as “baseless” and said it does not consider Hamas a terror organization, but simply a Palestinian political party.

"We reject all claims that Turkey is being used for anti-Israel activities," the source said.  

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem also denied allegations that its members were planning attacks in Turkey.

“Hamas’ resistance activities are conducted only in the land of occupied Palestine," Qasem said. 

But Israeli intelligence shows that Saleh al-Arouri, the second-highest-ranking Hamas terrorist, is directing Hamas’s network in Turkey. Senior Hamas leader

Jihad Ya’amor is also believed to be overseeing daily direct communication between Hamas and the Turkish government.

Although Israel has assassinated Hamas terrorists outside of Gaza and the West Bank before, the country appears to be more hesitant to track down and kill Hamas terrorists in Turkey for fear it would cause a diplomatic disaster with deadly consequences.