Turkey suspends all trade with Israel as war with Hamas in Gaza causes more civilian deaths

Istanbul — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country imposed a trade ban on Israel because it could no longer “stand by and watch” events. violence in Gaza. Turkey announced Thursday that it had suspended all imports and exports to Israel due to its military actions in the war against Hamas rulers in Gaza.

Ankara said Friday the ban would remain in effect until a the ceasefire is achieved and the Israeli government allows all humanitarian aid to reach Gaza unhindered.

“So far, Israel has killed 40,000 to 45,000 Palestinians mercilessly. As Muslims, we cannot stand idly by,” Erdogan told reporters after traditional Friday prayers in Istanbul, suggesting a toll even higher than that of Hamas health officials. who have ruled the Palestinian territory since the start of the war. It was triggered by the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, which left around 1,200 people dead and some 240 others taken hostage by the militants.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that 26 more people were killed by Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, bringing the total Palestinian casualties from the war between Israel and Hamas to at least 34,622. ministry in Gaza – a densely populated Palestinian territory ruled for nearly two decades by Hamas – does not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties in its tallies, but has long asserted that women and children make up the majority of victims. people killed.

The Israeli military claims to have killed 13,000 Palestinian militants during its war, but it has provided no evidence to support this claim. The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have repeatedly insisted that all possible measures are being taken to prevent civilian deaths, and they accuse Hamas of using civilians as human shields, but The UN said this week that the level of destruction of civilian housing in Gaza had not been seen since World War II.

The Turkish leader had faced intense pressure to end trade with Israel amid escalating civilian deaths in Gaza and his party lost a few votes in March’s local elections to a small Islamist party that had criticized Turkey’s continued trade relations with the Jewish state.

“We had a trade volume that reached $9.5 billion between us,” Ergodan said of Israel on Friday, “but we closed the door as if this trade volume did not exist.”

Erdogan once again held the United States and other Western countries responsible for deaths in the war between Israel and Hamas.

“The entire West, and especially America, is working for Israel by mobilizing all resources and unfortunately the poor people of Palestine have been sentenced to death because of Israeli bombings,” he said.

UN says Rafah offensive would pose ‘imminent risk of death’ for thousands

The United Nations aid agency said Friday that hundreds of thousands of people would be in “imminent danger of death” if Israel carried out a military attack on the southern Gaza town of Rafah, as reported. is committed to doing so.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Rafah had become a crucial hub for the distribution of humanitarian aid in and around Gaza since Israel launched its attack against Hamas.

Located just on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, Rafah is essential for food, water, health, sanitation, hygiene and other essential support to the Palestinian territory’s population, including hundreds thousands of Gazans who fled to Rafah to escape fighting elsewhere.

Laerke told reporters at a regular UN press briefing in Geneva that the displaced masses in the city “would be at imminent risk of death if attacked.”

World Health Organization officials said they were preparing contingency plans for a possible attack in Rafah. They noted, meanwhile, that more food has reached besieged Palestinians in recent weeks, but the threat of famine remains.

Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian areas, said via video conference that the threat of famine had “absolutely not” diminished. Dr Ahmed Dahir, head of the WHO office in Gaza, said the food situation was fragile and “the risk of famine has not been ruled out”.