Erdogan declares day of mourning for martyred Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh

Turkey 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 Erdogan 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," Erdogan said on X, calling Haniyeh a "martyr".

Erdogan 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," Erdogan wrote on the X social media platform, denouncing "Zionist barbarity".

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

Hamas is viewed by the United States, the European Union and Israel as a terrorist organisation but Erdogan calls it "a liberation movement".

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.