Middle East

Hamas spokesman hails Turkish ‘loyalty’ to Palestine

Turkey has continued to stand by Palestine while Arabs have moved closer to Israel, Hamas representative in Lebanon says

01.03.2019 - Update : 01.03.2019
Hamas spokesman hails Turkish ‘loyalty’ to Palestine

By Mahmut Geldi

BEIRUT

Turkey has remained loyal to the Palestinian people and resistance, Ahmed Abdulhadi, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, said Friday. 

“Along with a few other countries, Turkey has stood by the Palestinian people, despite the rush by a number of Arab states to normalize their relations with Israel,” Abdulhadi told Anadolu Agency.

Turkey, he added, had “broken” Israel’s years-long blockade of the Gaza Strip by sending humanitarian aid to the embattled territory by sea -- at the cost of several Turkish lives.

A raid by Israeli commandos on Turkey’s Mavi Marmara aid flotilla in 2010 led to the death of eight Turkish nationals and one American of Turkish descent. A tenth passenger died after nearly four years in a coma.

Since 2007, the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has groaned under an Israeli/Egyptian blockade that has gutted its economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Regarding Palestine-Lebanon ties, Abdulhadi called for the enhancement of the two countries’ “security-based relationship”.

He also called on Lebanese officials to ease security restrictions imposed on Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon.

Writing by Erdoğan Çağatay Zontur

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