Known for her assistance to orphans in Ukraine amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, first lady Emine Erdoğan now plans to offer support and aid to children in Palestine. Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş said they were in talks with their counterparts on the issue.
Göktaş said on X that she spoke to Palestinian Women’s Affairs Minister Amal Hamad and Social Development Minister Ahmed Majdalani in an online meeting. "During our conversation, I conveyed our heartfelt concern and sorrow regarding the humanitarian crisis and the unfortunate attacks on civilians in Gaza," she stated. "I emphasized our commitment to continuing our solidarity based on humanitarian values with the Palestinian people above all kinds of politics through the cooperation between our Ministries," stressed Göktaş.
Göktaş said she had proposed a joint initiative, under first lady Erdoğan’s guidance, to offer "immediate assistance to the children" affected by recent Israeli strikes. "Our intention is to offer medical treatment, protection and care to those children who have been injured or orphaned as a consequence of the attacks perpetrated by Israel until such hostilities cease," she underlined. As part of this effort, they agreed to establish a joint working group, "focusing on both ministries’ responsibilities with our Palestinian counterparts," noted Göktaş. "I want to underscore our unwavering determination to take every possible action within the framework of international law to end the ongoing attacks and occupation, ensuring that Palestinians can enjoy a life of freedom and security in their homeland at the earliest opportunity," she added.
More than 1,750 children have already been killed by Israeli strikes launched against the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Hospitals face a dire lack of medicines, fuel and water for the thousands wounded in more than two weeks of the conflict between Palestine and Israel and for routine patients.
The lives of at least 120 newborn babies in incubators in war-torn Gaza’s hospitals are at risk as fuel runs out in the besieged enclave, the U.N. children’s agency warned Sunday. "We have currently 120 neonates who are in incubators, out of which we have 70 neonates with mechanical ventilation, and of course, this is where we are extremely concerned," said UNICEF spokesperson Jonathan Crickx. Power is one of the main worries for the seven specialist wards across Gaza treating premature babies to help with breathing and provide critical support, for example, when their organs are not developed enough. Amid widespread electricity cuts, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday that hospitals had already run out of fuel for generators. The WHO said that about 1,000 people needing dialysis will also be at risk if the generators stop.
"If they (babies) are put in mechanical ventilation incubators, by definition, if you cut the electricity, we are worried about their lives," the UNICEF spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that 130 premature babies were in danger of dying due to the lack of fuel. Around 160 women give birth daily in Gaza, according to the U.N. Population Fund, which estimates there are 50,000 pregnant women across the territory of 2.4 million people.
While Israel says its strikes are aimed at Hamas, children comprise a considerable proportion of the 4,385 dead reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry. Whole families, including pregnant women, have been killed in strikes, and each day, parents can be seen in devastated streets carrying the bodies of infants in white shrouds. Doctors at Najjar Hospital in Rafah spoke on Thursday of how they had tried in vain to save an unborn infant from a woman killed in an Israeli airstrike on her family’s home. Hours earlier, eight children were killed as they slept in a house in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.