Turkish parliamentarians join walkout against Israel at IPU meeting in Geneva

By Muhammet Ikbal Arslan

GENEVA (AA) - Members of parliament, including representatives from the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM), staged a walkout against Israeli officials during the 149th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The session, chaired by IPU President Tulia Ackson, saw tensions rise as emergency proposals were being discussed.

The situation escalated when an Israeli official took the floor to speak.

In response, many representatives from many countries banged their tables as a form of protest and then walked out of the assembly hall.

Turkish MPs attending the session also joined the protest.

They exited the hall in solidarity with other delegates, chanting "Freedom for Palestine" as they left.

After the Israeli official's speech was over, the protesting representatives returned to the hall to resume the session.

Israel has mounted a huge air campaign in Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,500 people and displacing more than a million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed nearly 42,400 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

It expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.