Hamas is not terrorist organisation, says Erdogan, cancels trip to Israel
WEB DESK
At least 37 Palestinians were killed Wednesday in new Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, according to the Interior Ministry in the blockaded enclave.
A statement said 26 were killed and more than 100 injured in the strikes that targeted the al-Yarmouk neighborhood in Gaza City.
Many were still trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings in the area, it said.
Several residential buildings were destroyed in the attacks, according to witnesses.
Eleven Palestinians were also killed and scores injured when Israeli warplanes struck a house in the Tal al-Zaatar neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip, the ministry said in a separate statement.
The Israeli bombardment caused widespread destruction in the area, according to witnesses.
Israel has launched a massive bombardment campaign on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestine resistance group, Hamas, into Israeli territory on Oct. 7.
Nearly 8,000 people have been killed in the conflict, including at least 6,546 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis.
Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been running out of food, water, medicine and fuel, and aid convoys allowed into Gaza have carried a fraction of what is needed.
Meanwhile Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in his strongest comments yet on the Gaza conflict, said on Wednesday the Palestinian militant group Hamas was not a terrorist organisation but a liberation group fighting to protect Palestinian lands.
Erdogan said on Wednesday that he had canceled a plan to visit Israel in light of the ongoing Gaza conflict.
At the Justice and Development (AK) Party’s parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, Erdogan said that before Oct. 7, when the conflict erupted, he had planned to visit Israel but then canceled his plans.
Saying that Türkiye has no problem with the Israeli state, Erdogan added, however, that Ankara would never approve of Tel Aviv committing atrocities.
The Jewish people know well that Türkiye is the only land that has been without antisemitism for centuries, he added, referring to its welcoming Jews driven out of other countries during both World War II and the Ottoman era.
Noting that almost half of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza are children, Erdogan said this showed that “the aim is deliberate brutality to commit crimes against humanity.”
“…You cannot find another state or army [Israel] that continues this inhumane action with its tanks, cannons and weapons,” he said.