ISTANBUL: Turkiye marked its centenary as a post-Ottoman republic on Sunday with somewhat muted celebrations held in the shadow of Israel’s escalating war with Hamas militants in Gaza.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was front and center of day-long events that both honor the secular republic’s founder and play up the achievement of the Islamic-rooted party that has run Turkiye since 2002.
“Our country is in safe hands, you may rest in peace,” Erdogan said after laying a wreath at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
JERUSALEM: Thousands of Gaza residents broke into warehouses and distribution centers of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) grabbing flour and “basic survival items,” the organization said on Sunday.
“This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in a statement.