Ankara, Turkey – Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday expressed serious apprehensions about the escalating situation in the Gaza Strip, warning that unless the global community takes immediate action, two million people may die.
“Humanitarian aid and medical supplies are not allowed into Gaza. This is a harbinger of a major catastrophe within the Strip,” he said during a press conference in Albania, broadcast by the Anadolu agency. “I call on the international community to do all it can to prevent the annihilation of the two million people who have been held hostage by famine and epidemics.”
Fidan described the current events as “a tragedy on another scale” and emphasized the need for prompt preventive measures.
“If we do not immediately start preventing it, it may become too late. If, in addition to the bombs, people there begin to die of hunger and disease, it will become a great moral burden that the globe will not be able to bear,” he added.
The Middle East crisis intensified on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants entered Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death of border residents and the taking of hostages. The movement labeled the attack as retaliation for Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Israel responded by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, conducting airstrikes on the Strip, and initiating a ground operation in the enclave which has killed around 26,000 people. The conflict has also spilled over to certain areas in Lebanon and Syria, with the West Bank experiencing heightened tensions and widespread fighting.