Gaza Genocideupdated 17m ago3 min read
Ankara Hosts Free Palestine March, Urges Ceasefire Clauses Implementation on Gaza Anniversary
Ankara hosts solidarity march for Palestine on Gaza war anniversary. Protesters urge an immediate stop to the war and ceasefire clause implementation.
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Third Anniversary, New Calls
Istanbul’s Galata Tower was cloaked in the colors of the Palestinian flag as Turkey lit up landmarks and squares with messages of solidarity with Palestine on the third anniversary of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. Ankara hosted a “Free Palestine March” with thousands of participants protesting the ongoing Israeli war on the Strip despite the ceasefire reached on October 10, 2025, and the march began in front of the Quinceh Mosque after the Isha prayer. Participants chanted slogans against Israel and the United States and urged the full implementation of all clauses of the ceasefire, ensuring the entry of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and heavy machinery needed to remove rubble into Gaza without conditions.
Hamas said on the occasion of the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack that the Al-Aqsa flood was a historic station in its path and stressed its commitment to resistance until the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Hamas also accused Israel of continuing a silent extermination despite the ceasefire, saying that about 1,500 Palestinians were martyred in Gaza since the ceasefire.
Casualty Figures and Missing
Gaza Health Ministry demographic data for the period from October 7, 2023 to September 8, 2026 showed more than 52 percent of the more than 74,000 fatalities were children, women, and the elderly. The first two months of the war were the deadliest, with 10,803 people killed in October 2023 and 9,955 in November 2023. The Palestinian Health Ministry statistics in Gaza put at least 74,243 people killed due to military actions and more than 175,000 people injured as of October 5, 2026.
A ceasefire went into effect in Gaza on October 10, 2025, but deaths continued to rise as the ministry issued near-daily updates and rescue operations retrieved bodies trapped under rubble. Zaher al-Waheedi, head of the Health Information Unit at the Health Ministry, told the BBC that there are about 7,400 people missing under the rubble in various parts of Gaza.
Accountability and Political Stakes
Israel commemorated the third anniversary of the October 7 attack with ceremonies and protests in more than 400 locations, after armed men led by Hamas burst into Israeli communities along the Gaza border at 6:29 a.m. on October 7, 2023. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has killed “4,000 of the 6,000” militants who infiltrated Israel on October 7, 2023, and he declared, “We will reach them all.” The Peace Board asserted its mandate in Gaza on the anniversary of Hamas’s attacks on October 7 and said it was formed last January to promote stability in the Gaza Strip after the ceasefire.
The Peace Board’s press release said, “One hundred and two: three years ago, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and carried out a massacre of astonishing cruelty,” and it said 251 were taken hostage. El Mundo said the third anniversary concluded without Netanyahu making public appearances, and it said his office statement read, “Today, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, I lit a candle in memory of all the people murdered on October 7 by Hamas’s monsters.”