In February 2020, Haniyeh met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. U.S. State Department stated: “President Erdogan’s continued outreach to this terrorist organization only serves to isolate Turkey from the international community, harms the interests of the Palestinian people, and undercuts global efforts to prevent terrorist attacks launched from Gaza.”
In August 2020, Haniyeh called Mahmoud Abbas and rejected the normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, something which Reuters called a “rare show of unity”.
On 26 July 2023, Haniyeh met with Erdoğan and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Behind the meeting was Turkey’s effort to reconcile Fatah with Hamas.