Hamas spokesman hails Turkish ‘loyalty’ to Palestine

By Mahmut Geldi</p> <p>BEIRUT (AA) – Turkey has remained loyal to the Palestinian people and resistance, Ahmed Abdulhadi, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, said Friday.</p> <p>“Along with a few other countries, Turkey has stood by the Palestinian people, despite the rush by a number of Arab states to normalize their relations with Israel,” Abdulhadi told Anadolu Agency.</p> <p>Turkey, he added, had “broken” Israel’s years-long blockade of the Gaza Strip by sending humanitarian aid to the embattled territory by sea — at the cost of several Turkish lives.</p> <p>A raid by Israeli commandos on Turkey’s Mavi Marmara aid flotilla in 2010 led to the death of eight Turkish nationals and one American of Turkish descent. A tenth passenger died after nearly four years in a coma. </p> <p>Since 2007, the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has groaned under an Israeli/Egyptian blockade that has gutted its economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.</p> <p>Regarding Palestine-Lebanon ties, Abdulhadi called for the enhancement of the two countries’ “security-based relationship”.</p> <p>He also called on Lebanese officials to ease security restrictions imposed on Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon.