Erdoğan declares day of mourning for slain Hamas leader Haniyeh

ANKARA

Türkiye on Friday will observe a national day of mourning for the burial in Qatar of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who was killed in Tehran, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said.

"A national day of mourning will be declared tomorrow (Friday) in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters," Erdoğan said on X, calling Haniyeh a "martyr".

Erdoğan on Wednesday condemned the "perfidious assassination" of his close ally and "brother" Haniyeh, the political leader of Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas.

"May God have mercy on my brother Ismail Haniyeh, fallen in martyrdom," Erdoğan wrote on the X social media platform, denouncing "Zionist barbarity".

Haniyeh, who spent much time in Türkiye before the Oct. 7 attacks launched by Hamas on Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, last paid a visit to Erdoğan in Istanbul in April.

Thousands of people marched in Istanbul on Wednesday to denounce the death of Haniyeh, killed with his bodyguard in a pre-dawn strike on their accommodation in Tehran early Wednesday, in an attack that has been blamed on Israel.

Israel did not comment on the accusations.

A plane carrying his body landed in Doha Thursday after a public funeral in Iran attended by crowds of mourners who paid their respects, Qatar-based network Al Jazeera reported.

Qatar, which has hosted Hamas's political bureau with the blessing of the United States, including Haniyeh, has been involved in months of back-and-forth talks to mediate an end to the war in Gaza, alongside Egypt with US support.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to attend the funeral for Haniyeh in Qatar's capital.