Hostages Freed In Turkey As Police Detain Armed Man Protesting Israel’s War in Gaza
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
ISTANBUL/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Seven workers seized at a Proctor & Gamble (P&G) plant in northwestern Turkey were freed after a nine-hour standoff with a gunman protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza, Turkish officials confirmed.
The hostage-taker entered the factory in the Gebze industrial zone in Kocaeli province, about 65 kilometers southeast of Istanbul, around 3 p.m. local time on Thursday, several sources said.
Nine hours later, police in Gebza moved in and detained the suspect when he went to the toilet, officials said early Friday local time.
Local governor Seddar Yavuz said the hostages had suffered no injuries. “Our security forces intervened and neutralized the suspect,” described as a pro-Palestinian gunman.
“The man’s aim was to stop Israel’s massacre in Gaza and to open the Rafa gate in Egypt” for the delivery of humanitarian aid for trapped civilians, Yavuz added.
“When he went out for a bathroom break, our security forces carried out an operation without harming the hostages.”
Images showed the suspect, his face hidden by a Palestinian scarf, wearing what appeared to be an explosives vest and carrying a gun.
ASSAILANT APPREHENDED
“The assailant was apprehended by law enforcement authorities, and personnel who were being held were safely evacuated,” a P&G statement said.
“The fact that no one was harmed is our greatest relief. We are grateful to the authorities and first responders who managed the situation with courage and professionalism.”
The hostages were reportedly six men and a woman. Earlier reports that two gunmen were involved in the attack were not officially confirmed.
P&G Turkey employs 700 people at three sites in Istanbul and Kocaeli, according to the company’s website. It produces cleaning and hygiene brands such as Ariel washing powder and Oral B toothpaste.
Thursday’s hostage drama came as public resentment towards Israel, fueled by the president, has risen in Turkey since the Israel-Hamas war began.
There have been regular protests targeting Israel and its principal ally, the United States, and in support of the Palestinian people in major cities, with demonstrators demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been particularly outspoken, referring to Israeli “war crimes” and comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
US WARNING
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara issued a warning in November about demonstrations “critical of U.S. foreign policy” and calls for boycotts of U.S. businesses.
The advice followed protests and attacks in Turkey, a mainly Muslim nation, on outlets such as McDonald’s and Starbucks over the conflict in Gaza.
Across Europe, security has been stepped up following several antisemitic incidents and intelligence warnings of possible terror attacks related to the war.
Unlike many Western countries, Turkey has declined to describe the Islamist Hamas group as a terrorist organization. Instead, Erdogan praised Hamas shortly after it killed 1,200 people in Israel, including raped women and children, as well as abducting nearly 250 persons on the Jewish Shabbat of October 7.
On October 25, Erdogan told lawmakers of his ruling AK Party that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization.”
He added that Hamas is “a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to protect its lands and people,” referring to an Arabic word denoting those who fight for their religion.
Relatives of the hostages initially questioned why the assailant would target workers in Turkey — a country strongly supportive of the Palestinian cause — to show his solidarity with the people of Gaza.
MOTIVES QUESTIONED
“He supposedly does this for Islam, but they are the ones who harm Islam the most,” said Sedat Degirmenci, whose son-in-law was taken hostage.
“If you do this for Palestine, go and fight there,” added Cigdem Aydemir, the mother of a 26-year-old woman taken hostage at the plant.
Like other relatives, Aydemir was following the hostage-taker’s social media Instagram account for updates about the situation. The account became inaccessible by Thursday evening.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack, the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust, or Shoah, and the bloodiest in the State of Israel’s modern-day history, Israeli officials said.
The Hamas-run health ministry claims Israel’s retaliatory strikes killed more than 27,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, but those figures have been complex to verify independently.
Israel says it does not deliberately target civilians and that it has killed some 10,000 Hamas fighters in the four-month-old war.
The Israeli government does acknowledge that innocent people have died, too, but says Hamas is using civilians as human shields.
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