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Erdogan declares Aug. 2 day of national mourning over killing of Hamas chief as Turkey continues anti-Israel stance

Erdoğan’s tweets came after he made an explicit threat to invade Israel on Sunday, leading Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to call on NATO to expel Turkey.

By The Algemeiner

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday declared Friday, Aug 2, a day of national mourning over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

“In order to show our support for the Palestinian cause and our solidarity with our Palestinian brothers, a day of national mourning has been declared tomorrow (Friday, August 2) due to the martyrdom of Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh,” Erdogan posted on X/Twitter.

“I remember with mercy Ismail Haniyeh and all the Palestinian martyrs, and I offer my condolences to the Palestinian people on behalf of myself and my nation,” he added.

Haniyeh, the Palestinian terrorist group’s political chief, was killed in Tehran early Wednesday morning by the “Zionist entity,” according to both Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hamas.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was not involved in Haniyeh’s elimination.

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Erdogan, a fierce critic of Israel and ardent supporter of Hamas, on Wednesday condemned the “perfidious assassination” of his close ally and “brother” Haniyeh.

“May God have mercy on my brother Ismail Haniyeh, fallen in martyrdom after this odious attack,” Erdogan wrote on X/Twitter, denouncing “Zionist barbarity.”

Erdogan’s tweets came after he made an explicit threat to invade Israel on Sunday, leading Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to call on NATO to expel Turkey.

Turkey has blocked cooperation between NATO and Israel since October because of the war in Gaza and said the alliance should not engage with Israel as a partner until the conflict ends, according to Reuters.

Erdogan’s comments were the latest in a recent wave of hostile moves targeting Israel.

On Sunday, for example, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

In May, the Turkish trade ministry said it had ceased all exports and imports to and from Israel. The announcement came after Turkey imposed trade restrictions on Israeli exports over Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 invasion of and massacre across the southern region of the Jewish state.

That came after Erdogan in March threatened to “send Netanyahu to Allah to take care of him, make him miserable, and curse him.” He previously accused Israel of operating “Nazi” concentration camps and compared Netanyahu with Hitler.

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Weeks earlier, Erdogan said that Netanyahu was a “butcher” who would be tried as a “war criminal” over Israel’s military operations in Gaza. He has also called Israel a “terror state.”

Turkey hosts senior Hamas officials and, together with Iran and Qatar, has provided a large portion of the Palestinian terrorist group’s budget.

Several Western and Arab states designate Hamas, an offshoot of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, as a terrorist group.

However, Erdogan has defended Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

Israel withdrew all its troops and civilian settlers from Gaza in 2005.