Gaza hospital massacre galvanises Turkish support for Palestinians

Claims and counterclaims

Hamas officials in Gaza claimed the hospital had been attacked by Israel. In contrast, Israel claimed the explosion had been the result of a rocket that failed after being launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed group.

The PIJ is the second largest armed group in Gaza after Hamas. Both groups are considered terrorist organisations by the US, and both are supported by Iran with funding and weapons.

The Gaza hospital was where many people who had fled other areas during the previous ten days of fighting had been sheltering after Israel warned inhabitants of the northern part of the enclave to leave ahead of what many expect will be further devastating airstrikes and a probable ground invasion.

Foreign journalists are not currently allowed into Gaza, access to which is controlled by Israel and Egypt. News from the area is notoriously difficult and time-consuming even to attempt to verify. Information warfare and disinformation have also long been employed by all parties to the current conflict.

On the morning of 18 October, multiple Western OSINT and munitions experts claimed on social media that photos of the alleged impact site did not seem consistent with that of an airstrike or with the death toll reported, which they implied was likely to have been inflated.

Video footage and photos show that at least several dozen people were killed.

Israeli air strikes have hit healthcare facilities in the Gaza Strip numerous times, both in the current conflict and in recent years. Recently, it ordered overcrowded healthcare facilities in the northern part of the enclave to be evacuated despite there being no clear place for patients or the displaced to go or even basic supplies available to provide treatment to the thousands wounded in recent days by Israeli attacks.

Article 19 of the Geneva Conventions states, "The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy".

'Now even anti-Palestinian Turks are cursing Israel'

Turkey's citizens and its long-term residents seem to largely concur in their support for Palestinian civilians under Israeli bombs and do not see the 7 October killings of over a thousand Israelis by Hamas and linked armed factions as a valid justification for such a massive onslaught as has been seen in recent days.

The Israeli consulate that protestors tried to storm on 17 October is located in the Levent area of Istanbul with its high-rise buildings, large maze-like malls with luxury shops, gyms, and packed Starbucks cafes, as well as multiple other consulates, including some on leafy tree-lined side streets.

On the other side of the megalopolis, on an adjacent street to the "Israel Baby Killer" banner between the touristy Tophane and the trendy Cihangir areas, a large Palestinian flag has hung in prominent view over a major street for several days.

Both are only a few minutes away from Galata Port, where cruise ships carrying international tourists dock. 

After the 7 October start of hostilities after a massive Hamas incursion into Israeli territory that left over a thousand dead and an onslaught of Israeli air strikes that would, in the subsequent days, kill thousands in Gaza, a demonstration was held in the evening in Istanbul's Fatih district.

In recent years, the district has become well known for its conservativism and its many Syrian residents.

That night, women in niqabs wearing bright green Islamic headbands and holding toddlers in hijab by hand marched alongside teenage girls in tight jeans waving Palestinian flags near the main mosque.

A Turkish businessman who works internationally and who voted for the opposition in the last elections told Al Majalla in Istanbul on 18 October that he had been pleasantly surprised by how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was handling the regional turmoil wrought by the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The businessman, who asked that his name not be used, told Al Majalla that "in the 1970s and '80s, there were a lot of problems between leftwing and rightwing" groups, and the "leftwing groups were using guns and were big supporters of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and some were training with them".

"In the past, Palestine was an issue (generally backed by) leftwing groups – and in Turkey, (these groups) are mostly against religion," he said. "After Hamas (took over the Gaza Strip following their getting the most support in elections in 2006), it became a topic for Islamists" to support.

Some other Turks feel that "Palestinians supported the (outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party) PKK in the past and so why should we support them," he said.

Now, however, "even (Turkish) popular social media accounts that are generally against Palestine" have "started to curse Israel", he claimed.

"Especially after the hospital attack."

Erdogan "made a nice speech recently," the Turkish businessman said, "telling Hamas that what they did was wrong but also said to Israel that 'If you act like a terrorist group, not as a state, this is what you will get in return'."

Much of the Turkish population expects their president to "act as a mediator", he claimed.

Turkey amid hope for regional unity

Attempts to stage protests were also held near US bases in southern Turkey on the night of 17 October including in Adana and Malatya. The protests occurred against a backdrop of tension between the US and Turkey over the former's continued supporting of Kurdish armed factions in northeastern Syria linked to the outlawed PKK.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU. The US claims the factions in question are not actually part of the PKK and that they are their partners in the fight against the Islamic State in northeastern Syria.

The PKK has been waging a guerrilla war on Turkey for decades with training and logistics bases in neighbouring countries, including northeastern Syria. On 1 October it conducted a suicide attack in the Turkish capital outside the general security directorate only a few hours prior to the opening of a parliamentary session.

Many Turks don't distinguish between the US and Israel in terms of positions held and interests, the businessman claimed to Al Majalla, and these latest actions by Israel in Gaza will likely heighten existing friction between the US and Turkey.

However, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt have all, for many years, had relations and lines of communication open with Hamas, the armed and political faction ruling Gaza.

Turkey has often assisted in hostage and conflict situations across the region in recent years and may be the most well-placed to act as a mediator in this particular situation, given its attempts in recent years to patch up relations with Israel.

On 15 October, the Wall Street Journal quoted a Turkish intelligence official as saying that many states, "especially Western countries, are in contact with Ankara. They want us to transfer the messages secretly".

Earlier in the day prior to the incident in Gaza on 17 October Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan had said at a joint news conference in Lebanon's capital Beirut with his Lebanese counterpart that, from the current war in Gaza, "bigger wars could arise, but it could also lead to a historic peace".