Thousands stage pro-Gaza rally in Istanbul

Istanbul: Thousands joined a New Year’s Day rally for Gaza in Istanbul Thursday, waving Palestinian and Turkish flags and calling for an end to the violence in the tiny war-torn territory.

Demonstrators gathered in freezing temperatures under cloudless blue skies to march to the city’s Galata Bridge for a rally under the slogan: “We won’t remain silent, we won’t forget Palestine,” an AFP reporter at the scene said.

More than 400 civil society organisations were present at the rally, one of whose organisers was Bilal Erdogan, the youngest son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Police sources and Anadolou state news agency said some 500,000 people had joined the march at which there were speeches and a performance by Lebanese-born singer Maher Zain of his song “Free Palestine”.

“We are praying that 2026 will bring goodness for our entire nation and for the oppressed Palestinians,” said Erdogan, who chairs the board of the Ilim Yayma Foundation, an educational charity that was one of the organisers of the march.

Turkey has been one of the most vocal critics of the war in Gaza and helped broker a recent ceasefire that halted the deadly war waged by Israel after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023.

But the fragile October 10 ceasefire has not stopped the violence with more than more than 400 Palestinians killed since it took hold.