A gathering of several tens of thousands of people, including a son of the Turkish president, stretched across Istanbul on and around the Galata Bridge on Monday to denounce the "terrorism of the PKK and Israel" and show support for the Palestinians in Gaza.
Bilal Erdogan © Mena Today
A gathering of several tens of thousands of people, including a son of the Turkish president, stretched across Istanbul on and around the Galata Bridge on Monday to denounce the "terrorism of the PKK and Israel" and show support for the Palestinians in Gaza.
The Turkish army lost 12 soldiers in two separate attacks attributed to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq at the end of December.
Furthermore, since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a traditional supporter of the Palestinian cause, has criticized Israel extensively, including comparing the Israeli Prime Minister to Hitler.
Bilal Erdogan, the second son of the Turkish president, took the stage to pay tribute to the "martyrs" of the army who fell in Iraq: "Our prayers are our best weapons to emerge from the darkness. Greetings to our holy martyrs who illuminate our path."
"I have been to the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza: the people there place their hopes in Turkey and Recep Tayyip Erdogan," he assured the crowd.
By Erwan Vatok
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had instructed the military to further expand the existing security buffer zone in southern Lebanon, vowing to fundamentally change the security situation there.
Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from marking Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre "for the first time in centuries," the Patriarchate said, with police citing security concerns linked to the Iran war.
Pakistan hosted talks with Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia on Sunday as part of its efforts to broker an end to the Iran war, with initial discussions focused on proposals to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, sources familiar with the matter said.
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