Erdogan wrote through an account in Arabic on the “X” platform (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday night, “We in Turkey feel within our hearts the extent of the great pain that our Palestinian brothers are experiencing.”
He added, “Therefore, national mourning was declared in our country for a period of 3 days, out of respect for the thousands of our martyrs, most of whom are children and innocent civilians.”
A senior Turkish official and local media confirmed earlier Wednesday Ankara’s intention to take this step.
On Tuesday evening, Erdogan called for “an end to this unprecedented brutality in Gaza,” accusing Israel of “strikeing a hospital containing women, children, and innocent civilians.”
While the Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, accused Israel of bombing the hospital, the Israeli army attributed the strike to a missile launched by the Islamic Jihad movement, confirming that it had “evidence” of that, while the movement denied it, accusing Israel.
US President Joe Biden adopted the Israeli story regarding the hospital bombing during a visit to Israel on Wednesday.
About 80,000 people demonstrated on Tuesday evening in front of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, according to authorities.
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