Venezuela hails Türkiye's efforts to help Palestinian people prevail over Israel

By Mehmet Sah Yilmaz

ANKARA / CARACAS, Venezuela (AA) — Türkiye has played a major role helping Palestinians achieve victory against Israel, Venezuela's foreign minister said on Saturday.

"We appreciate Türkiye's leadership in the Islamic and Muslim world, and its leadership in the region. We think that it will play an important role in helping the Palestinian people achieve this victory," Yvan Gil said in a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

Praising the two countries' common stance on defending the Palestinian people, Gil said that he discussed the issue with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Gil said they were "proud" of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's stance on Palestine.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli war has killed more than 29,600 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Nearly 70,000 people have been injured.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar ​​​​​​