This is John Batchelor, conversation with Jonathan Schazzer just back from the Middle East, from Israel,

about the intentions of the handshake between a man named Hania, the head of Hamas in Turkey, with the precedent of Turkey,

Mr. Erdogan.

The intention is for there to be a refuge for Hamas after the failure in Gaza, possibly evacuate through Egypt,

possibly transfer to Turkey, possibly camped somewhere outside of Istanbul.

Asking Jonathan Shenzer about this possibility, is it real?

Something like the PLO evacuation of Beirut in the 1980s.

Jonathan has details here and expectations.

Hamas to Turkey, a member of NATO, Puzzle, Johnson-Chanser, more of this tonight.

Yeah, I mean, we've heard now over the last several days that as the Rafa operation looms that and and we are also hearing that the

Kataris may now have lost their stomach for hosting a lot of these leaders.

It appears that Turkey is willing to step up

and to be the official or semi-official host of Hamas

after this war is over. The Turks of course have been

doing this now for the better part of a decade and a half. They have hosted a

very large number of Hamas operatives. This would be a change though. This would be a more

official role for Turkey. The base is in Istanbul. I think the base would be set to grow and of course the optics of this are rather

awkward. The Turks are NATO allies and they appear to be set and willing to host a known terrorist organization that is branded as such by just about

all of their European allies as well as the United States.

Awkward indeed.