Turkish Hamas headquarters raise questions for international community

One of the suspects led security forces to a hidden roadside bomb buried near a key junction in the West Bank. The large metal container filled with explosives was destroyed in a controlled demolition by police sappers.

“Turkey at this stage constitutes one of Hamas’s most important operational hubs abroad,” Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University and former head of IDF Military Intelligence’s Department for Palestinian Affairs, told JNS.

Milshtein noted that Hamas had been degraded in Lebanon and Syria following recent developments in the region. “As a result, Turkey has become a central nerve centre.”

He added that Istanbul is home to Zaher Jabarin, the successor of Saleh al-Arouri, the late Hamas deputy political bureau chief killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut in January 2024. Arouri was responsible for Hamas’s West Bank operations across a variety of fields. “Most operations [in the West Bank] — especially military ones — are promoted from there,” said Milshtein.

“I assess carefully that Hamas finds it very convenient to operate in Turkey,” Milshtein said. There’s freedom of action, though not the same intense support as from Iran or Hezbollah. As long as they don’t establish military bases like in Syria, they are allowed to work freely, and of course, it is known that their focus is on promoting terrorism.”

Milshtein said there had been several reports indicating that “it’s not just a free hand, but also training, mainly in intelligence and commando fields, by Turkish security elements.” And, he stressed, “Turkey is a central Nato member.”

Under Jabarin, the core of Hamas’s West Bank command is run by operatives deported as part of a 2011 prisoner exchange to free Gilad Shalit. “A minority are in Qatar and Gaza—where a number of senior headquarters operatives were eliminated during the war—but the core is in Turkey,” said Milshtein.

A number of these terrorists were involved in attacks such as orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in 2014. Milshtein said that this network also continues to explore “breakthrough moves like undermining the Palestinian Authority’s hold on the West Bank,” a strategic vision led by Arouri until his death.

Michael Barak, senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) in Herzliya and a specialist on radical Islamist and jihadist movements, said: “Turkey is a base for the Muslim Brotherhood. There are networks there that help Hamas with funding, support, religious rulings, and logistics. Turkey has become a reception point for Brotherhood members.”

“A Hamas headquarters still exists there—in Istanbul and Ankara—and it is integrated into educational institutions, including universities,” he said.

He cited the example of Professor Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad financier in the 1990s who was deported from the United States and now operates from a university-affiliated think tank in Ankara. “There he hosts Hamas figures,” Barak said. “Al-Arian maintains ties with Hamas, runs webinars with them on Zoom, and manages Brotherhood-Hamas links, including in India.”

“All of these Muslim Brotherhood assets in Turkey assist Hamas—whether through dawa [Islamic outreach], financing, or religious rulings,” he said, and Turkey has become “a reception point for Muslim Brotherhood figures from Libya, Iraq, and Yemen.”

On 30 March, during a Ramadan prayer service, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared: “May Allah, for the sake of his name … destroy and devastate Zionist Israel.”

He also prayed for “mercy upon the martyrs” of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and wished a “speedy recovery” to their wounded terrorists.

Erdoğan has intensified his anti-Israel rhetoric since the October 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel, comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and asserting that “Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them.”

Throughout the conflict, Erdoğan has met openly with Hamas officials and even threatened military action against Israel, according to the Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Tyler Stapleton, director of congressional relations at FDD, said: “Erdoğan’s call for the destruction of Israel should force the United States to begin an escalatory ladder of responses to hold Turkey’s leadership accountable.”

He said the US should reassess arms sales to Turkey, and that “Turkey’s ability to purchase advanced fighter aircraft like the F-35 should trigger Congressional review.” He added that Washington “should continue to outline restrictions on foreign military financing and the exclusion of Turkey from NATO exercises” as initial steps to address Erdoğan’s hostility against Israel.