On June 27, Israel and Turkey declared they reached an agreement to normalize relations. The declaration did not have a positive ring at the Hamas grass-roots level, as the agreement did not stipulate the complete lifting of the Gaza blockade. However, Turkey will be allowed to deliver a 10,000-ton shipment of humanitarian aid, build a 200-bed hospital and establish a new power station and a desalination plant for drinking water.

The agreement came six years after the two countries broke off ties following the Mavi Marmara incident, when Israeli naval forces seized the ship on May 31, 2010, killing nine Turkish people onboard. Since then, Hamas and Turkey had strengthened their ties, and Turkey demanded an end to the siege imposed on Gaza after Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections.

“Hamas believes that under the Turkish-Israeli agreement, Turkey achieved as much as it can to ease the blockade on Gaza, which has been plagued by economic crises," Ahmed Youssef, a former political adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, told Al-Monitor.

He said, "Although [Turkey] has worked to lift the blockade completely over the past years, [the agreement] has disappointed some Palestinians. Yet Turkey should not be blamed for failing to lift the siege. Turkey could have reached a deal with Israel in early 2015, but it continued to negotiate on lifting the siege. Eventually, Turkey showed the Hamas leadership the agreement, out of respect, which suggests that Hamas-Turkish ties are at their best.”