Erdogan: 1,000 members of Hamas are being treated in Turkish hospitals

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that more than 1,000 members of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas are being treated in hospitals in Turkey, while he reiterated his position that Hamas is a resistance movement, reports Reuters.

A Turkish official later said Erdogan was "wrong" to say that Gazans are being treated in Turkey.

"If you call Hamas a terrorist organization, that would make us sad," Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Ankara, after Mitsotakis had referred to Hamas as such.

"We do not consider Hamas a terrorist organization... More than 1,000 members of Hamas are being treated in hospitals across our country," Erdogan said.

A Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, later said Erdogan was wrong.

"President Erdogan said it wrong, he wanted to say that 1,000 residents of Gaza are being treated, not members of Hamas," said this Turkish official.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Tuesday that Ankara had decided to submit its statement on formal intervention in the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel at the ICJ.

Fidan had already said earlier this month that Turkey planned to join the case launched by South Africa against Israel over its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.

"We condemned the killing of civilians on October 7," he said at a press conference with his Austrian counterpart. "But Israel by systematically killing thousands of innocent Palestinians and making an entire residential area uninhabitable has committed a crime against humanity, attempted genocide and manifestation of genocide."

Turkey's decision comes after similar moves in this direction by Egypt, Libya and Colombia.