Hamas has set up a secret headquarters in Turkey for carrying out cyberwarfare and counter-intelligence operations, western intelligence services have learnt.
The headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey’s main city, were set up about two years ago and are separate from Hamas’s official offices in the city which deal mainly with co-ordination and funding, according to western intelligence sources. The unit is directed by Hamas’s military leadership in Gaza and was opened without the knowledge of the Turkish government.
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.
The headquarters is directed by Samakh Saraj, a senior Hamas member based in Gaza who reports directly to the movement’s leader, Yahya
