ANKARA
Marking World Humanitarian Day on Monday, Turkey condemned Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,000 people over the past ten months, and stressed that perpetrators must be brought to justice.
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“We pay tribute to those who serve selflessly in all parts of the world,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on X, paying tribute to the humanitarian workers.
The ministry accused Israel of crimes against humanity, stating: “After massacring more than 40,000 innocent Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza, Israel continues to indiscriminately kill humanitarian workers and volunteers, especially staff of UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees).”
Türkiye called on international courts to hold the Israeli government accountable, stressing: “On World Humanitarian Day, we reiterate that the bloody Netanyahu government must be held accountable as soon as possible.”
World Humanitarian Day is an international day of remembrance to honor humanitarian workers and those who have lost their lives while working for humanitarian purposes.
“With 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries last year, 2023 was the deadliest year for the global humanitarian community,” a 137 percent increase from 2022, when 118 aid workers died, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on World Humanitarian Day.
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“With 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries last year, 2023 was the deadliest year ever for the global humanitarian community,” a 137 percent increase from 2022, when 118 aid workers died, the OCHA statement said.
The organization cited the Aid Worker Security Database, which has been collecting such figures since 1997.
The UN reported that more than half of the deaths in 2023, 163, were aid workers killed in the first three months of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, mostly due to air strikes.
Israel has ignored a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and continued its brutal offensive against Gaza since October 7.
More than ten months after the start of the Israeli attack, large parts of the Gaza Strip lie in ruins and there is a crippling blockade of the supply of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice and has been ordered to immediately halt its military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before the May 6 invasion.
