Turkey’s top communications official accused Israel of committing “crimes against humanity and war crimes” after five journalists and 15 others were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Monday.
Burhanettin Duran, the head of Turkey’s Communications Directorate, said in a post on X that press freedom and human dignity had once again come under attack “in the shadow of genocide and amid the cries of the innocent.”
İsrail, insanlık ve savaş suçlarına bir yenisini daha ekledi. Basın özgürlüğü ve insanlık değerleri, soykırımın gölgesinde, masumların acı çığlıkları arasında bir kez daha hedef alındı.
Hiçbir insani ve hukuki ilkeyi gözetmeksizin zulümlerini sürdüren İsrail, gazetecilere… https://t.co/UfphqRK6mu
— Burhanettin Duran (@burhanduran) August 25, 2025
At least 20 people were killed, including five journalists, in Israeli airstrikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian health officials said.
The journalists worked with international outlets, including The Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye.
In his statement Duran accused Israel of carrying out systematic assaults on journalists to suppress the truth while pursuing what he described as efforts to “annihilate a nation under blockade and genocide.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had carried out a strike in the area, adding that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such.”
Monday’s attack came two weeks after six journalists were killed in another Israeli strike near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Israel does not allow international news organizations to enter Gaza and freely report.
Duran urged the international community and global institutions to raise their voices and act urgently, saying the violence against civilians and media workers would be remembered as a “dark chapter in human history.”
“I pray for the journalists who have been killed and for our Palestinian brothers and sisters,” he wrote, adding that he saluted all reporters in Gaza who continue to show the world the suffering there “at the cost of their lives.”
More than 240 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 that resulted in the death of 1,206 people and the taking of some 250 hostages.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, the Israeli military has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
Two prominent human rights organizations in Israel last month joined a number of international rights organizations, UN human rights experts and scholars in accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel released separate reports based on studies of the past 22 months of conflict, saying Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and that the country’s Western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is also examining a case brought by South Africa alleging that Israeli forces are committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.