NATO state to fly flags at half-mast for Palestinian victims

The president of Türkiye has declared a three-day mourning period to honor the Palestinians that have been killed in the Hamas-Israel conflict

Türkiye will observe three days of national mourning in solidarity with Palestinians killed in the ongoing escalation between Israel and Hamas, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced late on Wednesday.

The number of Palestinians who have died in the latest outbreak of violence in Gaza has almost reached 3,800 people, the Turkish media reported on Thursday, citing a statement by the Gaza Health Ministry. Around two thirds of them were women and children, the statement added.

“In Türkiye, we feel the great suffering of our Palestinian brothers and sisters in our hearts,” Erdogan said in a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter). “As a requirement of our respect for thousands of martyrs, most of whom are children and innocent civilians, a three-day period of national mourning has been declared in our country,” he said.

During this period, Turkish flags are to be lowered to half-mast across the nation, as well as in all Turkish diplomatic missions abroad. The mourning period is set to last until sunset on October 21.

According to Turkish media outlets, the president insisted that the mourning was meant to show solidarity with Palestinians in the face of attacks carried out by Israel against Gaza, including “most recently on a hospital on October 17.”

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The strike, which took place on Tuesday, killed around 500 people, according to Gaza health officials. Many Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and Jordan, blamed the Israeli military for bombing the health facility.

Ankara has also laid the blame on West Jerusalem and strongly condemned it. Erdogan called on humanity to “take action to stop Israel's unprecedented brutality in Gaza” following the attack, which he said was “devoid of fundamental human values.”

The Israel Defense Force (IDF), however, has strongly denied responsibility, claiming the strike came from a failed rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group. Washington has supported West Jerusalem by also blaming Palestinian militants.

Russia and the United Arab Emirates called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the wake of the hospital blast. Moscow then also demanded a thorough and impartial investigation into the issue that would allow bringing all those responsible to justice.