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ANKARA/DUBAI: Turkiye’s ties to Hamas, once a liability in Washington, have turned into a geopolitical asset. By persuading Hamas to accept Donald Trump’s Gaza deal, Ankara has reasserted itself on the Middle East chessboard, to the dismay of Israel and Arab rivals.
Initially resistant to the US president’s ultimatum — free the Israeli hostages or face continued devastation — Hamas leaders relented only when Turkiye, a country they view as a political patron, urged them to agree to the American plan.
Two regional sources and two Hamas officials told Reuters that Ankara’s message was unequivocal: The time had come to accept.
“This gentleman from a place called Turkiye is one of the most powerful in the world,” Trump said last week, referring to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, after the Palestinian militant group agreed to a ceasefire and hostage-release plan.
“He’s a reliable ally. He’s always there when I need him.”
Erdogan’s signature on the Gaza document supercharged Turkiye’s push for a central role in the Middle East, a status Erdogan has increasingly sought to reclaim, often invoking Ottoman-era ties and leadership.
Now, after the deal, Turkiye is seeking to reap dividends, including in bilateral issues with the US, the sources said.
Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based think tank EDAM and a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, said Ankara’s success in delivering Hamas’s acceptance of Trump’s Gaza deal has given it new diplomatic leverage at home and abroad.
Turkiye, he said, is likely to use its renewed goodwill in Washington to push for progress on stalled F-35 fighter jet sales, an easing of US sanctions and US help in advancing Turkiye’s security goals in neighboring Syria.
“If those laudatory statements from Trump translate into lasting goodwill, Ankara could use that momentum to resolve some of the long-standing disagreements,” Ulgen told Reuters.

AT TRUMP-ERDOGAN MEETING, A REVAMP OF TIES BEGAN
The diplomatic recalibration between Ankara and Washington, officials said, began during Erdogan’s September visit to the White House, his first in six years.
The meeting addressed unresolved flashpoints, including Turkiye’s push to lift US sanctions imposed in 2020 over its purchase of Russian S-400 missile systems, a move that angered Washington and also led to its removal from the F-35 program.
Syria was another key topic. Turkiye wants to pressure the US-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to merge into the Syrian army. Ankara views the SDF as a threat due to its ties to the PKK, which Turkiye designates a terrorist group.
That push appears to be gaining ground. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi confirmed a mechanism to merge with the Syrian army, an outcome Turkiye sees as a strategic win.
The Gaza deal follows other boosts to Turkish prestige. Trump praised Erdogan for hosting Russia-Ukraine talks earlier this year, and Ankara’s influence grew after Bashar Assad’s fall in Syria in 2024, where Turkiye backed opposition forces.
Turkiye’s ambition to reclaim a dominant Middle East role recalls for some skeptics the legacy of the Ottoman empire, which once ruled much of the region. Its collapse a century ago left modern Turkiye inward-looking as it built a secular republic and somewhat sidelined from regional diplomacy.
For years, Ankara was not part of high-level efforts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, a core source of regional instability. Turkiye’s support for Islamist movements — including political and diplomatic backing for Hamas, whose leaders it has hosted — strained ties with Israel and several regional states, and its perceived drift under Erdogan from NATO norms further distanced it from peacemaking.
But to break the deadlock in Gaza ceasefire talks, Trump turned to Erdogan, betting on the Turkish leader’s sway over Hamas. Turkish officials, led by spy chief Ibrahim Kalin, assured Hamas the ceasefire had regional and US backing, including Trump’s personal guarantee.
By enlisting Erdogan, Trump handed Ankara the role it craved as a dominant regional Sunni power. 
“Erdogan is a master in expanding his influence, seizing opportunities, taking advantage of events, turning them to his own interest and taking credit for them,” said Arab political commentator Ayman Abdel Nour. 
While Arab states shared an interest with Turkiye in ending the war, said Lebanese analyst Sarkis Naoum, the larger role given to Ankara was worrisome for them, recalling the history of Ottoman imperial rule over many countries in the region.
Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry and MIT intelligence agency did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The US State Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
For Hamas, the main concern was that Israel might renege on the deal and resume military operations. Deep distrust nearly derailed the process, regional sources said.
“The only real guarantee,” a senior Hamas official told Reuters, “came from four parties: Turkiye, Qatar, Egypt, and the Americans. Trump personally gave his word. The US message was: ‘release the hostages, hand over the bodies, and I guarantee there will be no return to war.’”

CRUSHING PRESSURE ON HAMAS
Turkiye’s entry into the talks was initially vetoed by Israel, but Trump intervened, pressuring Israel to allow Ankara’s involvement, two diplomats said.
There was no immediate comment from Israel’s foreign ministry.
A senior Hamas official said Gaza’s military leaders accepted the truce not as surrender, but under the crushing pressure of relentless mediation, a collapsing humanitarian situation, and a war-weary public.
The deal won the release of Israeli hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which killed 1,200 people, and triggered an Israeli offensive that has since left over 67,000 Palestinians dead, according to Gaza health authorities.
Whether the Gaza deal will eventually open a way toward a Palestinian state remains unclear. Turkiye and Arab states including Qatar and Egypt say the plan lacks a roadmap toward a two-state solution, a historic Palestinian demand.
Asked about a potential Turkish troop deployment to Gaza in a post-war scenario and ways to ensure the enclave’s security, Erdogan said on October 8 the ceasefire talks were critical for discussing the issue in detail, but the priority was achieving a full ceasefire, aid deliveries and rebuilding Gaza.

LONDON: A Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank has been hospitalized after being clubbed on the head by a Jewish settler while picking olives, the BBC reported.

The unprovoked attack on Afaf Abu Alia, 55, was filmed by American journalist Jasper Nathaniel in the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya.

Nathaniel said the settler knocked Abu Alia unconscious with a club before hitting her as she lay on the ground.

The Israel Defense Forces claimed that its personnel ended the confrontation after arriving at the scene, and that it “strongly condemns” settler violence.

However, Nathaniel said: “No Israeli forces showed up to the attack at any point.” He added that Israeli soldiers were in the area before the attack and had “lured” him and others into an “ambush,” before speeding off ahead of the settler attack.

He said of the video footage: “It’s the most vivid image that’s ever been seared in my mind. He swings it (the club) one time and I saw her body go completely limp. And then he stood over her and hit her twice more.”

Abu Alia was seen bleeding as she was carried into a vehicle to be taken to hospital. She was first admitted to intensive care but is now in a stable condition, doctors said.

The attack was part of a wider assault by 15 masked Jewish settlers on local Palestinians picking olives, part of the harvest season that began on Oct. 9

The group was seen throwing stones at the Palestinians and activists who had arrived to support them, including Nathaniel.

At least 80 percent of Turmus Ayya residents hold US citizenship or residency, according to Israeli media reports.

Nathaniel contacted a US Embassy official about the incident, but was told that the diplomatic body could not offer protection to him or other American citizens in the area.

The age-old Palestinian cultural ritual of the olive harvest has come under growing Israeli pressure in recent years.

Farmers in the West Bank regularly face organized assaults by Jewish settlers, as well as arbitrary roadblocks and land access bans by Israeli forces.

The UN’s humanitarian office documented 71 settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank from Oct. 7-13, with at least half related to the olive harvest.

Human rights groups say the assaults are designed to intimidate Palestinians into leaving their ancestral lands so that settlers can seize new areas.

From 2005 to 2023, just 3 percent of official Israeli investigations into settler violence resulted in a conviction, according to Israeli civil rights group Yesh Din.