The Hamas terror group has set up a secret headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey for carrying out cyberwarfare and counter-intelligence operations, western intelligence services have learnt.
According to the western intelligence sources cited in a report in The Times, the headquarters were set up around two years ago and are separate from Hamas’s official offices in the city which deal mainly with co-ordination and funding.
The cyber unit is directed by Hamas’s military leadership in Gaza and was opened without the knowledge of the Turkish government, sources say.
Its operatives are not known to other Hamas members in Turkey and have not notified the government of President Erdogan of their presence, according to sources.
Reports say the headquarters is directed by Samakh Saraj, a senior Hamas member based in Gaza who reports directly to the movement’s leader, Yahya Sinwar. It is said to have three main tasks: it is responsible for purchasing “dual-use” equipment that can be used for the manufacture of weapons; it co-ordinates cyber-operations against enemies of Hamas in the Arab world, including the rival Palestinian Authority based in Gaza, and embassies of countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates located in the Middle East and Europe; and it oversees surveillance, and in some cases interrogation, of those within Hamas’s own ranks suspected of disloyalty.
Hamas in recent years has lost many of its bases in the Arab world, with Egypt and other Arab regimes turning against its parent movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.
President Tayyip Erdogan’s regime has come under criticism for its support of the proscribed terror group. Erdogan’s relations with Hamas enabled the organisation to open offices in Istanbul in 2012. In August 2020, it was reported that Turkey gave passports to Hamas members.
