Turkish President Recep Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Ankara “firmly backs” Palestinian militant group Hamas.

“No-one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organisation,” he said in a speech in Istanbul. “Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them.”
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Erdogan has been one of the most virulent critics of Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, which began after an October 7 attack by Hamas in Israel that claimed at least 1,160 lives, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel has responded with a relentless ground and air offensive that the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said has killed at least 30,878 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave, mostly women and children.

Erdogan has called Israel a “terrorist state” and accused it of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza.
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