ISTANBUL, July 31. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan strongly condemned the assassination of the Hamas political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran and called it a despicable act, targeting Palestine.
"This assassination is a despicable act aimed at undermining the Palestinian cause, the glorious resistance of Gaza, and the just struggle of our Palestinian brothers. <…> However, Zionist barbarism will once again fail to achieve its goals," TRT World public broadcaster quotes Erdogan’s statement on his X page.
Erdogan stressed that Turkey "will continue to explore all avenues, exert all efforts, and support our Palestinian brothers with all our means and strength." "We will continue to work for the establishment of a free, sovereign, and independent State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the 1967 borders," he said.
Earlier, Hamas said that Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Palestinian movement Hamas, has been killed in an Israeli strike on his residence in Tehran, where he had arrived for the inauguration of the country’s president-elect, Masoud Pezeshkian. The Al Hadath TV channel reported that Haniyeh was killed in a direct missile strike.