One year on: Erdoğan urges action as humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens

A year has passed since the humanitarian crisis in Palestine began.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been active since the moment the brutal Israeli attacks started, making nearly 150 phone calls and participating in about 30 summits.

Homes, schools, hospitals, and mosques in Gaza have been bombed, with innocent civilians—young and old, men, women, and children—targeted without distinction.

The genocidal attacks by Israel, ongoing in front of the world's eyes, started a year ago.

President Erdoğan has been the only leader to express a high-level reaction to Israel's assaults. He made his first statement on October 8, 2023, just a day after the attacks began.

Erdoğan immediately sought to end the assaults, speaking with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Isaac Herzog over the phone. In the 45 days following October 7, Erdoğan had 30 phone conversations and met with Mahmoud Abbas three times face-to-face, as well as five times by phone.

Erdoğan also met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh twice in ten months and spoke with him twice by phone. Their last conversation was on May 6, before Haniyeh was martyred.

President Erdoğan sent a letter to Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of Catholics, emphasizing that international law should not be violated any further in Gaza.