UPDATE - Türkiye’s foreign minister to attend UN Security Council meeting on Middle East

UPDATES WITH TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER LEAVING FOR NEW YORK, CHANGES LEDE, DECK, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Esra Tekin and Alperen Aktas

ISTANBUL (AA) – Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday departed from Ankara to New York to attend a UN Security Council meeting on Jan. 23, Turkish diplomatic sources said.

The minister will participate in the meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including Palestine, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. He will also hold bilateral meetings during the visit.

Israel has killed more than 25,000 people in the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.