Various countries—including Turkey, Iran and Russia—have welcomed Hamas members in recent weeks after the terror group’s leadership was asked to leave Qatar, Israel’s Kan News reported on Monday night.
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, once the deputy of now-slain terrorist mastermind Yahya Sinwar, has settled in Ankara, while others were said to be considering a move to Malaysia.
Malaysia, a country with a Muslim majority and sizable Buddhist and Christian minorities, does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Earlier on Monday, Sky News Arabia reported that Hamas’s entire senior leadership had left Qatar. Arab sources told the British channel that the terrorists’ family members had also left the country. According to the report, the senior Hamas officials left Doha for “various destinations.”
Hamas’s military wing is known to run the group’s operations in Malaysia. In 2010, Hamas sent 15 men to the Asian country to train in paragliding.
Hamas used paragliders to infiltrate the Jewish state during their Oct. 7, 2023, invasion.
In 2018, Hamas engineer Fadi Muhammad al-Batash was shot dead in Kuala Lumpur. He was an expert in suicide drones and rocket systems. The terror group accused Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency of orchestrating his death.
Two years ago, Malaysian police arrested a group of locals on suspicions of kidnapping a Gaza-born computer programmer on Israel’s orders, allegedly because the Mossad believed him to be a Hamas asset.
Unnamed Israeli sources previously confirmed to Kan that Hamas had relocated to Turkey. According to the Nov. 17 report, the development could have “dramatic” consequences for the truce talks between Israel and Hamas, which have been mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
Hamas repudiated the reports, claiming that they were rumors spread by Israel. A Turkish diplomatic source also denied the claim, clarifying that members of the terrorist organization occasionally visit the country.
A senior Hamas official told AFP on Monday that the Islamist group is waiting until international pressure forces Israel to end its war in Gaza before it will return to the negotiating table and close a hostage deal.
“Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are making great efforts to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange,” said a Hamas official who was part of a Sunday meeting in Cairo on the issue, referring to a possible exchange of captives for Palestinian terrorists jailed in the Jewish state.
“Our Palestinian people are waiting for American and international pressure on [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to stop the war and reach an agreement, as happened in Lebanon,” the terrorist added.
Jerusalem believes that 97 of the 251 hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023 terror assault remain in Gaza. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed during “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014.
