Türkiye declares three-day national mourning for Gaza victims

Türkiye has declared a three-day national mourning period in solidarity with Palestine following an Israeli air strike on the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza that killed at least 500 people.

"As Türkiye, we feel the great suffering of our Palestinian brothers and sisters in our hearts," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on X as he announced the presidential decree on Wednesday.

"As a matter of respect for our thousands of martyrs, most of whom are children and innocent civilians, three days of national mourning has been declared in our country," Erdogan added, commemorating over 3,500 Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli attacks since October 7.

Turkish legislature earlier condemned in a joint statement Israeli attacks on hospitals, and emphasised that bombing medical facilities is against the laws of war.

The hospital attack has drawn strong condemnation from Türkiye, with Erdogan calling on all of humanity to take action to stop Israel's "unprecedented atrocity in Gaza".

"To strike a hospital where women, children, and innocent civilians are present is the latest example of Israel's attacks devoid of basic human values," Erdogan said on X following the attack.

"Bombing hospitals is a grave crime. Massacring people who are receiving medical attention is simply beyond the pale. Targeting civilians is employing terror tactics, pure and simple," Türkiye's Communications Director Fahrettin Altun also said in a statement on X.

After Türkiye and Egypt, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on Thursday also declared three days of national mourning for the victims of an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza.

The TRNC Cabinet declared a mourning period on October 19-21 due to the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people as a result of the attacks on a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday.

Israeli claims debunked

Israel has denied responsibility for the air raid, while numerous international actors called for an impartial investigation to prove who is culpable.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government’s anti-disinformation arm has rebuffed “false” Israeli claims that Hamas was behind the airstrike.

“The claim that '(Palestinian group) Hamas, not Israel, carried out the attack' on the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza's Al Zaytoun neighbourhood is false," the Communications Directorate’s Centre for Combating Disinformation said on late Tuesday on the social media platform X.

"The Al Zaytoun neighbourhood in the north of Gaza is an area where hundreds of civilians have been killed in days of intense Israeli bombardment," it added.

“When the footage of the hospital bombing is examined, it becomes obvious that the ammunition that had the effect of destroying the area was not the type that Hamas had previously employed,” the statement stressed.

Analysis of false media posts found that “images shared by Israeli propaganda accounts claiming that a 'Hamas missile hit the hospital' were from 2022, not 2023," the Centre for Combating Disinformation added.

The air strike came on the 12th day of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, with a growing international chorus of non-governmental groups and world leaders saying the Israeli bombing campaign on the besieged enclave – including healthcare facilities, residences, and houses of worship – violates international law and may constitute war crimes.