Türkiye to support Palestinians until they have independent state — Erdogan

Türkiye has shown its support to Palestine, which has been reeling under Israeli oppression, by sending its people over 45,000 tons of humanitarian aid, has said the nation’s president.

"Türkiye has shown that we stand by the Palestinian people in these difficult times with the aid material we have sent to the region, exceeding 45,000 tons in total," said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a video message on Tuesday.

"We will continue our support to our Palestinian brothers and sisters until the bloodshed in Gaza stops and they live in a free Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the basis of the 1967 borders," he added.

The president also blasted Israel for its aggression against the war-stricken Gaza, which has been under illegal Israeli blockade for 17 years now and months of a relentless Israeli attack, killing tens of thousands of people, most of them women and children.

"Since October 7, Gaza has been a bleeding wound not only in our hearts, but in the conscience of all humanity. We have faced scenes of brutality in which hospitals, schools, churches and mosques, which should not be targeted even in war, were deliberately bombed," he said.

Mentioning how 33,000 Palestinians have been killed so far by Israel while over 75,000 have been injured in Israeli attacks, Erdogan also wished God's mercy to those who lost their lives and a speedy recovery to the injured.

The Israeli war, now in its sixth month, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling ordering Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.