Israeli Foreign Minister says Erdoan should be ashamed of meeting Hamas leader | Recep Tayyip Erdoan

Israel's foreign minister criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan for his decision to make public his latest meeting with the head of Hamas' political bureau.

Israel Katz shared a photo on X showing Erdoan shaking hands with Ismail Haniyeh in a presidential office in Istanbul over the weekend, writing that the Turkish president should be ashamed.

Erdoan met with Haniyeh alongside key members of his cabinet and Sameh Shoukry, Egypt's foreign minister, to discuss Israeli attacks on Gaza and efforts to ease tensions in the region, according to Turkey's presidential office.

Erdoan and Shoukry expressed concern during the meeting that recent drone attacks between Israel and Iran could distract international attention from the suffering on the ground in Gaza, where 34,000 people have been killed by bombings Israelis since October 7.

The meeting also highlighted an ongoing regional realignment in the context of Israeli attacks on Gaza following an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli towns and kibbutzim in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

Turkish relations with Israel have rapidly deteriorated as the Israeli assault on Gaza continues. Ankara recently chose to ban the export of 54 products, including aluminum and cement, to Israel until a ceasefire is reached.

A three-ship flotilla carrying hundreds of activists, journalists and aid is due to leave Turkish waters in the coming days and head toward Gaza, repeating an identical 2010 effort. Israeli commandos eventually boarded the boats in the waters international forces and shot dead nine of the activists, causing a years-long rift between the two countries.

Indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar and Egypt, appear to have failed, if not completely failed. Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said last week that Doha was reassessing its role as mediator, adding that some had used the negotiations for narrow political interests and made destructive statements towards Qatar .

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said a date was set for a ground invasion of Gaza's southernmost town of Rafah, sparking fears for more than a million people sheltering there.

In a rare interview with Turkish state media Anadolu, Haniyeh called on our brothers in Egypt, our brothers in Turkey, our brothers in Qatar as mediators and European countries to take measures to restrict [Israeli] aggression and prevent the operation in Rafah, as well as the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Haniyeh also took advantage of the interview to attack Washington. The US position is misleading, even though they claim they do not want civilians to be harmed, this is an attempt at manipulation, he said, pointing to Israel's use of weapons American-made in Gaza.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei thanked the country's armed forces for their operation against Israel and urged them to continually pursue military innovation and learn the enemy's tactics, the news agency reported on Sunday Iranian official.

Tehran openly targeted Israel for the first time on April 13 with more than 300 missiles and drones, in what it said was retaliation for Israel's deadly bombing of a consulate in Damascus, Syria, on April 1.

How many missiles were launched and how many of them hit their target is not the main question, what really matters is that Iran demonstrated its will during this operation, Khamenei said on Sunday.

Explosions echoed above the Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday morning in what sources said was an Israeli attack, but Tehran downplayed the incident and said it had no plans for retaliation, a response that seemed aimed at avoiding a regional-scale war.

Reuters contributed to this report