‘Shut up, be ashamed’: Israeli minister to Turkish President over Gaza aid stampede

Turkey became the latest entry into the list of countries to condemn Israeli forces for the recent stampede involving a Gaza aid convoy. The Turkish foreign ministry blasted Israel for using “starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza” and called the mass-casualty incident “yet another crime against humanity”.

“The entire world must realise that the atrocity in Gaza is about to become a global catastrophe with repercussions far beyond the region,” the Turkish foreign ministry said. “We therefore call on all those with influence over the Israeli government to stop the ongoing violence in Gaza.”

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In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz took to X to hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, accusing the latter of constantly carrying out “massacres” against the Kurds in Turkey.

“Erdogan, who constantly massacres Kurds in Turkey and the region, accuses Israel of deliberately committing genocide in Gaza. Mr Erdogan, we are not like you. We are fighting against your accomplice, Hamas, whom you hosted in Turkey and enabled them to commit massacres and murders. You should be silent and ashamed,” Israel Katz tweeted along with a picture of the Erdogan with a Hamas leader.

At least 115 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured in the deadly stampede on February 29, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israeli troops apparently fired into the crowd, who were waiting to receive aid from the convoy, with a hospitial chief claiming over 80 per cent of people brought there had suffered gunshot wounds.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), however, said that the Palestinians died due to “overcrowding and trampling” and that its troops only fired when they felt endangered by the crowd.

The IDF also released aerial footage of Palestinians surrounding trucks carrying humanitarian aid into northern Gaza on X. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said many of the dead were crushed by the trucks themselves.

More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched a counterattack against Hamas, following the group’s unprecedented attack on the Jewish nation on October 7 in which they killed 1,200 people and took over 200 others to Gaza as hostages.