Exclusive: Turkish First Lady Warns Israel Has Crossed 'Red Line' in Gaza

As the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement rages on in the Gaza Strip, Turkish first lady Emine Erdoğan told Newsweek in an exclusive interview that her country is leading efforts to provide humanitarian aid in the besieged territory and demand a cease-fire to the deadliest-ever flare-up in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A lifelong social activist prior to and during her marriage to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was reelected in May to extend his 20-year rule over one of the most powerful and influential nations in the Middle East, Emine Erdoğan has become personally invested in Gaza's growing humanitarian crisis. Last week, she led the United for Peace in Palestine Summit in Istanbul in a bid to shore up international solidarity and cooperation over the issue.

Now, she outlines to Newsweek why Turkey, officially called Türkiye, is pushing for greater pressure against Israel, which has denied any violations of international law in its campaign against Hamas in the wake of the group's unprecedented October 7 surprise attack, and why she believes that nations across the globe, including fellow NATO ally the United States, need to step up.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Newsweek: Prior to and after becoming first lady, you have been very involved in various social projects, especially as they relate to women and children. Based on this expertise, can you speak to how you view the current situation in Gaza in the midst of this war?

Erdoğan: Since the end of the last century, humanity has unfortunately witnessed a multitude of wars, conflicts and extensive destruction. A substantial portion of these humanitarian crises have occurred in our neighbouring regions, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syria, Ukraine, and Libya. All of these conflicts reveal a harsh fact: women and children are disproportionately affected by the damaging consequences they bring about.

Today, as a result of Israel's attacks on the occupied Palestinian territories and particularly Gaza since October 7, we are witnessing the heinous effects that a war can have on women and children. As Israel unleashes an unprecedented barrage of bombs and bullets upon civilians in Palestine, our collective reaction is one of utter horror and concern.

Women and children account for 73% of the approximately 12,300 Palestinians killed to date. What valid justification can a state have for transforming the surface of a city into hell for all living beings and the underground into a necropolis of children? This is not my definition; it is that of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UNICEF's Spokesman James Elder. Today, as five children are killed in Gaza every hour, seven babies are born among the bombs. The statement by a doctor at Al-Shifa Hospital that "writing 'unknown baby x' on the body of a dead little baby is the most difficult thing in the world" encapsulates the horrors endured by children in Gaza. Who would have thought that the term "unknown soldier" would one day be used to refer to children?

On the one hand, Israel causes tens of thousands of deaths and injuries by targeting schools, hospitals, places of worship, UN facilities, and even humanitarian corridors, while on the other hand, it renders 18 of the 35 hospitals in the Gaza territory inoperable after its destructive strikes and resource constraints. While we still bear the agony of the premature babies we lost when hospital machines failed because of a lack of electricity, we witnessed that Israel intentionally and specifically targeted hospitals' intensive care facilities. The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza, which we built as Türkiye, was also a target of the Israeli military. Medical institutions that care for cancer patients were also targeted by Israeli airstrikes.

Unfortunately, there is no safe haven in the region for the 1.5 million Gazans who were forcibly displaced. There are pregnant women, mothers with infants, and children with special needs among these people. Can you imagine how difficult it is for them to deal with the conditions of conflict and displacement?

Every child has the right to a safe and comfortable home, as well as a good education and healthcare, regardless of where they are born. In terms of access to rights and opportunities, we perceive no difference between Palestinian children and children from Ukraine, Europe, America, Türkiye, or other nations.

Throughout this conflict, many in the Islamic world have accused Muslim countries of not doing enough to support the humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza. How is Türkiye stepping up to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians there, and what exactly is being provided?

What is happening in Gaza now cannot even be described as a war. With its cutting-edge weapon technology, this is a state that responds with organisational reflexes and pursues a manner of collective punishment without discriminating between men and women, children and the elderly. I say organisational reflex because, even in times of war, there is a law that civilised states follow. However, we see Israel disregarding even the most fundamental rules of international law in Palestine, such as non-discrimination, the use of proportional force, and the prohibition of the use of chemical and biological weapons.

Currently in Palestine, a belligerent state is clearly committing war crimes, amounting to crimes against humanity, in violation of universal humanitarian values and international law. We cannot regard such atrocities as a problem that only affects Palestine, the region, or Muslim countries. The accumulation of global common values and international law, which Israel now irresponsibly corrupts, came at the expense of great wars and losses, of which Israel was once a victim. In an effort to prevent the recurrence of similar sufferings, losses, and tragedies, the use of violence is prohibited and restricted, and legal acts that are allowed in times of war are regulated. In fact, Israel targets this shared accumulation of values and law with each bomb dropped in Gaza, inflicting irreversible wounds on the global conscience. In such a scenario, it is imperative to ask the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, UN officials, and Western countries claiming to be defenders of global values: what are you waiting for to ensure a ceasefire, immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to the region, and an end to the crisis that threatens global security?

Amidst a conflict in which civilians were explicitly and entirely targeted, the Security Council's permanent members were the ones to vote against the United Nations General Assembly Gaza Resolution calling for a ceasefire. Why do these countries, which have the ability to avert the crisis, abstain from accepting responsibility when history is replete with examples of preventable mass killings and wars? I would like to state unequivocally that no ideology, political interest, or economic gain is more valuable than the life of an innocent human being.

Muslims and mosques are not the sole targets of Israeli attacks; Christians and Jews in Gaza, as well as their places of worship, are also targeted by bombs. Indeed, in the face of such blatant injustices, everyone with a conscience, from East to West, is standing up for the just cause of Palestine. Millions of people are protesting this atrocity in the streets, squares, and on university campuses across the globe, despite the fact that their respective governments hold opposing views. Because thousands of people are being massacred in Palestine, whose religion we do not know, nor do we need to know.

We long for a world in which we do not approach the oppressed, the innocent, the refugee, and the needy on the basis of religious, linguistic, or racial differences, but rather treat everyone equally and fairly. As Türkiye, our hearts beat wherever there is oppression in the world, as we have done in the past. Through all available means and institutions, particularly the initiatives of our President, we persistently employ significant effort to expose the massacre to the international community and put an end to the ongoing attacks.

In my capacity as a First Lady, I have conducted telephone diplomacy with several spouses of other heads of state and government from the region and beyond to explore potential collaborative efforts, with a particular focus on the distribution of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Although we each have a powerful voice as First Ladies, our combined strength is even more formidable. On November 15th, I hosted the United for Peace in Palestine Summit in Istanbul to be the collective voice of the Palestinian people and humanity. At the conclusion of the summit, we, as 19 spouses of heads of state and government and country representatives, addressed the international press and made a joint appeal to the international community for an immediate ceasefire and the full delivery of humanitarian aid to the region.

Moreover, we relocated nearly 1,500 Ukrainian children to Türkiye who had been affected by the conflict in Ukraine, including some with special needs, for whom our institutions continue to provide for their every need. We launched a similar initiative with the Ministry of Family and Social Services to relocate children who had lost their families in Gaza to Türkiye. I am closely following the process in person.

Türkiye has sent 10 plane loads of humanitarian aid exceeding 230 tons to El-Arish Airport with the support of Egypt. Additionally, our preparations for sending two civilian humanitarian aid ships to the region continue. Earlier, a large ship carrying 50 containers filled with field hospitals, medical and other aid supplies arrived in Egypt. Another ship departed from Izmir carrying approximately 500 tons of aid materials to be delivered to Gaza. The ship has equipment, including medicine, medical devices, eight field hospitals, 20 ambulances, and medical supplies.

Our country will continue to make efforts to provide all kinds of support to the Palestinian people fully within the scope of humanitarian aid efforts. I must emphasise that Türkiye remains as one of the key countries for solving the crises and problems in the region. We are ready to make the necessary efforts, including as a guarantor, to preserve the peace to be established in this context. I would like you to know that we are determined to do everything we can to ensure that Palestinians live freely and safely in their own land. We expect and should expect the same sensitivity and approach not just from Muslims, but from any country with a conscience.

One of the other criticisms we often hear is that such aid runs the risk of supporting Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions in Gaza. Does Türkiye have processes in place to ensure this aid goes to civilians, and if so, what are they?

In just 40 days, more than 25,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped on Gaza, a city of 2.5 million people spread across 365 sq km and home to the world's densest population. This entails dropping explosives equivalent to two atomic bombs in a small but densely populated area such as Gaza. There is a grave lack of conscientiousness in discussing sending aid to a region where hospitals are non-operational, infrastructure systems have failed, and there is no safe haven for any living being. In other words, it implies that you are viewing the situation through the eyes of the oppressor rather than the oppressed. Humanitarian aid, which Israel opposes due to its delusive and baseless claim that it will go to Hamas, is not a choice for the innocent Palestinians but a matter of life and death.

If Israel's intention is not to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza and then seize their land, but rather to coexist peacefully with the Palestinians in accordance with UN resolutions and existing agreements, then its commitment to upholding Palestinian rights should have outweighed its hostility towards Hamas. Unfortunately, remarks made by high-level officials, attacks carried out on the basis of false accusations, and the war crimes they have already committed demonstrate that Israel is more interested in war, conflict, and the political and military gains they believe these would bring them than in peace.

They have a discriminatory, vindictive, and hateful mindset that completely dehumanises Palestinians, devalues everything what does not belong to them, and seeks to destroy them. The Defence Minister of Israel, who is leading this war, has painted the Palestinians as "human animals." The obvious crimes committed by these individuals receive less attention in the Western media than the slender possibility that aid intended for Palestine will end up in the hands of Hamas.

However, if we are to achieve a just, lasting, and sustainable peace, we must give Palestinian youth the opportunity to live a future deserving of human dignity—a future that offers an option other than killing or being killed. What kind of future can a child imagine when his home is destroyed by missiles, his UN shelter is bombed, he loses family members in the attacks, he has nowhere safe to go, and he cannot even find a hospital to have his wounds treated? Or how is he supposed to react to the heinous persecution he is subjected to? How can a young Palestinian person, deprived of the most basic human rights and surrounded by suffering, death, and loss, not respond with violence?

The wise leader Alija Izetbegović's remark that "don't seek revenge, but justice" in response to the atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina reveals the key to lasting peace. We must resist the evil mentality that believes every person killed must be compensated for by killing at least ten more, and work to establish a just peace for everyone in the region. The solution to this is likewise very clear: a sovereign Palestinian state with territorial integrity based on the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital must be established.

As Türkiye, we are prepared to take on any and all responsibilities that fall on our share during this process. We are currently attempting to lead international initiatives to end the humanitarian crisis in Palestine and to strengthen our cooperation with the region's countries, particularly Egypt. In this regard, in cooperation with international organisations, we will make the most of our opportunities to secure a ceasefire as quickly as possible, and then rebuild Gaza from the rubble in a way that will allow its own children and people to look forward to a bright future.

The United States has also led calls for expanding humanitarian aid in Gaza but has also expanded military assistance to Israel. Do you assess Washington's role in this conflict to be more helpful or harmful?

In these difficult times, all responsible international actors must cooperate to achieve a long-term peace in Gaza [and] promptly send aid to the Palestinian people. All international authorized organizations you can think of, including the UN offices, international humanitarian rights organizations, international health organizations emphasising the gravity of the situation in Gaza. While this atrocity and this bloodbath are incontestable with all the pictures and evidence, flaring up the fire of this conflict that ruins the lives of children and sending more ammunitions, more bombs and more warships to the region is, in the simplest terms, to participate in this massacre. The fuses, which the U.S. helped Israel acquire, target the hospitals, newborns in incubators in intensive care, schools, mosques and churches, as well as ambulances carrying patients and refugee camps. Who can therefore assert that Washington plays a constructive role in the conflict, given that they themselves are complicit in this heinous act?

On the other hand, how should we interpret the fact that all Western world countries, particularly the United States, are united in their defence of Israel, even when the entire world observes the unfolding human misery in Gaza and current evidence plainly demonstrates activities that could lead to war crimes? Is the definition of "human" that has been protected in the human rights declaration and several international treaties limited to people who live in the boundaries specified by the Western world? Are there any more principles that the United States and the Western world can honestly promise to the world while they ignore and support the destruction and corruption of current international law and universal values?

I am certain that the global public consciousness put on record that some Western countries sending aircraft carriers to Gaza, while Türkiye is sending aid planes to the region. While Israel imposes a blockade and intensifies bombardments, and non-Western countries condemn the situation, the unwavering support given to Tel Aviv by the leaders of Western countries deepens the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and even threatens global peace and order. Indeed, the United States' increased military presence in the region exacerbates the risk of escalation in Lebanon, Syria, and other neighbouring countries, while also encouraging Israel to become even bolder in committing crimes against Palestine and expanding its initiatives to displace millions of people, which will complicate the conflict rather than solving it.

Despite all of this, there are reasons to maintain hope at the international level. Today, Western public opinion is developing a political awareness against Israel's brutality despite all its direct and indirect propaganda attempts, and today we see large demonstrations against Israel are being held in Western capitals. These demonstrations represent a global voice of conscience, and that voice cannot be drowned out. We call on all countries that want a just, lasting peace for the region and for the world to listen to the cry of the people for peace, not to silence it. They need to mobilize all their resources to end the conflicts and to call on all parties to comply with international law.

We have seen tensions rise between Türkiye and Israel in recent weeks, with both countries withdrawing their ambassadors. Have these developments had an impact on Türkiye's ability to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza, and are you concerned that Israel could seek to restrict such efforts, as was the case during the 2010 flotilla incident?

Türkiye's position on humanitarian issues has always been principled, not reactionary. Withdrawing diplomatic relations with a state that deliberately murders unweaned newborns and mothers with children, as well as civilians, and can disclose this with impunity, should be expected of any country that cares about humanity. However, as Türkiye, we prioritize the establishment of a ceasefire and the continued delivery of humanitarian aid above all else. What is pressing is not a short-term break, but a long-term ceasefire. As the UN special rapporteur on Palestine said, halting Israeli attacks for four hours after weeks of brutality is "ridiculous" and "cruel."

I believe it is humanity's duty to work to guarantee that humanitarian relief organizations have unrestricted access to Gaza. While the UN Humanitarian Relief Coordination Office Spokesperson compared the north of Gaza to hell, any aid endeavour that cannot be delivered to the region should be a concern not just for the country giving aid, but also for humanity. Indeed, Israel's policy of blocking aid destined for the region targets a wide range of countries and organizations. We reject the punishment meted out to Gaza, which has already been ravaged, and to the innocent citizens who live there. As members of the international community, we demand that the civilian population in Gaza be protected and we urge that humanitarian relief reach those in need without delay. Israel should be put under pressure for this. Our government will maintain its moral position and seek to supply humanitarian aid to Gaza under all circumstances. And I think that in the end, humanity will prevail.

As the Palestinian death toll continues to mount, there are fears that even humanitarian aid may have a limited role in helping Palestinians should the conflict continue to escalate and Israel potentially assumes control of Gaza as Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated. Do you or the president have a red line when it comes to Israel's actions and the situation in Gaza, and what other tools may Türkiye have to support the situation of those living in Gaza?

Every conscientious person's red line should be the life of an innocent person taken for a crime he did not commit, or a baby's tear, or a child's cry of "I want to live." When chemical weapons were dropped on children, when civilian settlements, including UN institutions, were targeted, and when humanitarian aid workers pleaded for help in letters, a red line should have been crossed for all of us. In our religion, the killing of an innocent person is akin to the "death of humanity."

What red line can we possibly discuss while we are burying our humanity one by one with our Palestinian sisters and brothers who are being slaughtered? We must now ask the global community: Where does humanity draw the line? What critical threshold of death are you waiting to put an end to this atrocity? In the face of attacks that have been going on for weeks, the global community has been deafeningly silent. How aware are we that the cost of these 40 days of silence will be years of mending and rebuilding of trust?

As a mother, a woman, and a human being, I refuse to leave our children and grandkids with this dreadful legacy. As Türkiye, we will fight for a worldwide understanding that welcomes people with compassion and sees them as intrinsically important, regardless of language, religion, or ethnicity. We will go to whatever length to restore trust, stability, and peace in the region and across the world.

On this occasion, I would like to state that the Summit, which we organised in Istanbul on November 15 with the participation of the spouses of heads of state and government, as well as country representatives, will move from rhetoric to action by calling on the international community to take action to ensure a ceasefire and deliver humanitarian aid to the region. Our efforts are continuing to develop into an initiative to first achieve a ceasefire and then to rebuild the Palestinians' destroyed cities.

We shall not grow weary and we shall not give up. Because we dream of a Palestine in which Palestinian youths, irrespective of nationality or religion, walk hand in hand along the shores of Gaza as brothers and sisters. It is a dream for the children of the West Bank, al-Quds [Jerusalem], and Gaza to live in peace and harmony. Peace between Israel and Palestine is concealed in the commitments we will all make today as well as in the acts we will do. That is why, on November 15, I reiterated our request for a ceasefire and humanitarian assistance. Wherever we are, let us be the voice for journalists, health professionals, humanitarian assistance workers, and all Palestinians who are on duty for humanity in Palestine. Let us not forget what we said to the entire world during the United for Peace in Palestine Summit: there are no winners of war, and there is no loss in a just peace.