Western nations silence aggravates humanitarian crisis in Gaza: Erdogan tells Putin

Washington: Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the ‘savagery’ towards Palestinian lands is deepening and alleged that the Western nations silence is aggravating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

In a telephonic conversation with his Russian counterpart, Erdogan said western countries’ silence was exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and that civilians were constantly being killed, Guardian reported.

Multiple agency reports quoted a statement from Erdogan’s office reiterating Turkey’s stand that Ankara would continue working to achieve calm in the region. Turkey was one of the first countries to try to send aid into Gaza via Egypt after the conflict broke out.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry has estimated that the death toll has reached over 700 in last 24 hours. At least 5,791 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.

The ministry said that the number included 2,360 children. A spokesperson for the ministry, Ashraf al-Qidra, said they had received 1,550 reports of missing people, including 870 children, and suggested that those missing could still be under rubble of collapsed buildings.

The UK said 12 British people were killed on 7 October in Israel and five remained unaccounted for. British-Israeli families of those held hostage held a press briefing at the Israeli embassy in London. People also took part in a vigil for children killed in Gaza in central London.

Meanwhile, The Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the military was “ready and determined” for the next stage in the war and was awaiting political instruction even as the US was asking it to delay as Pentagon officials felt that Israel had no clear end goals in mind on the invasion of Gaza.

In a social media post, the Israel Defence Forces claimed to have struck more than 400 targets in the past 24 hours in what was described as “a wide-scale operation to dismantle Hamas’ terrorist capabilities.”

Hamas has released two more hostages from Gaza on “humanitarian and poor health grounds”. Nurit Cooper, also known as Nurit Yitzhak (79) and Yocheved Lifshitz (85) were kidnapped along with their husbands from the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border on 7 October.

The 85-year-old grandmother is now in an Israeli hospital where she was seen thanking Hamas officials after release from captivity but recounted on reaching Israel that her life had been turned upside down and that she went through “living terror and hell” during captivity.