tens of thousands of Turks gathered in support of Gaza

The crowds began to gather before daybreak to converge on the banks of the Bosphorus. Turkey wants to be at the forefront in supporting the Palestinian cause, frequently castigating the Israeli Prime Minister and the inertia of the West.

In Istanbul, they responded en masse to the call of 300 organizations to demonstrate under the slogan “Mercy to our martyrs, support for Palestine, curse on Israel”.

Elif is 16 years old, a keffiyeh on her shoulders, and a sign “Never stop talking about Palestine”. “We talk about it every day at school with our teachers, she says. We talk in particular about the victims, their numbers, the bombed hospitals, the teachers who are killed, the doctors. Today we show our strength to the whole world. There should be even more of us.”

At the podium, the speakers claim more than 250,000 people. The crowd bristling with Turkish and Palestinian flags stretches in tight ranks on the Galata Bridge which spans the Bosphorus. On the first day of the year, Turkey wanted to show the world its solidarity with the Palestinian people. Yahya, a businessman, got up early to attend: “We are not here only for Palestine but for humanityhe explains. You cannot bomb hospitals, bomb churches, schools, mosques. This all belongs to humanity. But obviously, they don’t care. They view Palestinians as animals and they treat them like animals.”

“We came to resist Israel”

“They say, ‘We have the right to defend ourselves,’ adds Yahya about Israel. You don’t defend yourself, you only attack. You are killing innocent people… You are killing babies! And that’s why we’re here. To show the world that we fully support the Palestinians and that we are fully against the Israeli Zionist government, not against the Jews.”.

With a keffiyeh covering her veil, Aysegul wishes to confide her fears: “We came to resist Israel, which is committing genocide and occupying Palestinian territories without reason. Israel refuses to return the occupied lands and perhaps now wants to take over Gaza as well.”

Signs caricature Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wearing a Hitler mustache, to whom President Erdogan compared him this week.