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Gaza rallies to celebrate defeat of Turkey coup attempt

Waving Turkish and Palestinian flags, hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Khan Younis on Saturday to voice support for Turkey’s elected government

July 16, 2016 at 2:42 pm

Hundreds of people took to the streets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday to celebrate the failure of a coup attempt by a renegade faction of Turkey’s military.

“With the support of its people, Turkey has emerged victorious,” Gaza resident Mohamed Ashour, 50, told Anadolu Agency.

The father of seven went on to recount how he had surfed through television channels all night to follow the dramatic events in Turkey. “News of the coup attempt came as a big shock,” he said. “But now the shock has turned to joy.”

Waving Turkish and Palestinian flags, hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Khan Younis on Saturday to voice support for Turkey’s elected government.

Some carried banners reading, “Gaza won’t forget those who stood by it” – a reference to the Turkish government’s longstanding support for the people of Gaza, who have suffered under a decade-long embargo imposed by Israel and Egypt.

“This is a message to our brothers in Turkey that the Palestinian people stand by you,” Yunus al-Astal, a leading member of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, which has governed the strip since 2007, said.

On Friday night, renegade elements within Turkey’s military attempted to stage a coup against the government. Although the coup was soon put down by the country’s legitimate authorities and security apparatus, roughly 160 people were martyred in the violence, according to Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

MEMO Exclusive images by Mohammed Asad.