The Turkish president has said that he does not think that Palestinian group Hamas will leave Qatar, where some of its political leaders are based.

According to Al Jazeera, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who made the comments to reporters while returning from a visit to Iraq, said he had heard no signs of Qatar wanting the group to end the presence of its political bureau in Doha.

“What is important is not where Hamas’s leaders are, but the situation in Gaza,” Erdogan said, according to a text of the in-flight interview published by his office.

“The sincerity they [Qatar] have towards them [Hamas], their stance toward them, has always been like a member of the family. In the coming period, I absolutely do not think it is possible for them to change this approach.”

Erdogan was asked about the matter after some media reports suggested Hamas may leave the Gulf country, but Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said today “there is no justification” to end the presence of the Hamas office while its mediation efforts continued in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.