Middle east Updates: Trump‘s Rhetoric, Hostage Remains, and Turkish Aid too Gaza
Amidst ongoing conflict, former U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to “go kill” Hamas members during a radio interview this Thursday, escalating already heightened tensions. Together, efforts to locate the remains of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza areโข underway, with Turkey โdispatching a โฃteam of specialists from its disaster โขand emergency management agency, Afad, to assist in the search.โ
The Turkish team, experienced in navigating difficult terrain following disasters like the Februaryโ 2023 earthquake that killed at least 53,000 in โsoutheastern Turkey, will focus on searching through the ruins of the Gaza Strip. This development comes as aโ potential ceasefire deal, contingent on โคtheโฃ return of hostage bodies, faces uncertainty. Elsewhere, controversy eruptedโ surrounding Mustafa Cakici, international coordinator of the Global Sumud flotilla (GSF), who was excluded from the NGO after the emergence of repeated anti-Semitic, homophobic, and Holocaust denial messages publishedโฃ on his social networks. Cakici recently returned from a month-long humanitarian mission attempting to โขbreak the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which resulted in five days ofโข detentionโ in Israeli prisons. The French political party โLFI “vigorously dissociatesโ itself” from Cakici’s statements, โขaccording to StreetPress.