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Turkey Launches 'Mediterranean Storm' Maneuvers

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (L) speaks next to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a press conference after their meeting in Athens on 10 October 2019. [ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images]
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (L) speaks next to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a press conference after their meeting in Athens on 10 October 2019. [ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images]
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Turkey Launches 'Mediterranean Storm' Maneuvers

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (L) speaks next to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a press conference after their meeting in Athens on 10 October 2019. [ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images]
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (L) speaks next to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a press conference after their meeting in Athens on 10 October 2019. [ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images]

The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced launching the “Mediterranean Storm” maneuvers from September 6th to 10th.

The statement continued that “Turkish air, land, and sea forces are participating in the exercises,” and that “the exercises include joint and actual exercises on airstrikes and combat search and rescue operations.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: They will understand that Turkey has political, economic, military might needed to cast off immoral maps and documents imposed by others.”

“Turkey is prepared for any type of sharing, so long as it’s honest”, he added.

Turkey supports an initiative on talks between military officials of Turkey and Greece, which was launched by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Hulusi Akar said at a graduation ceremony at the National Defense University in Ankara.

France’s statements on the Eastern Mediterranean and Iraq “do not contribute to the spirit of the alliance, nor to peace or dialogue,” Akar said.

In the same context, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed last Friday with Stoltenberg the latest developments during a phone call.

Earlier, Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Dendias briefed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Turkey’s provocations against peace and regional stability in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean, at their meeting in New York on Friday.

In the meantime, the Turkish opposition renewed its criticism to the president and the government as well as for ruining ties with Egypt. Faik Oztrak, the spokesman of the Republican People's Party, said that Greece managed to isolate Turkey diplomatically while Erdogan was busy accomplishing his ‘empty dreams’ which he has been committed to for years.

Oztrak criticized Turkey declaring its readiness to sit and talk with everyone.

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UN Housing Expert Says Gaza Has Experienced an 'Unprecedented Rain of Destruction'

Palestinians rest under the rubble of their destroyed house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians rest under the rubble of their destroyed house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Housing Expert Says Gaza Has Experienced an 'Unprecedented Rain of Destruction'

Palestinians rest under the rubble of their destroyed house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians rest under the rubble of their destroyed house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)

Gaza has experienced “a biblical, unprecedented rain of destruction” since Israel launched its military offensive following Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, the UN housing expert said.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN independent investigator on the right to adequate housing, told reporters Friday that “the ferocity” of destruction in Gaza wasn’t seen in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.

By January 2024, Rajagopal said, 60-70% of all homes in Gaza were destroyed, and in northern Gaza it was 82% of homes. “It is far worse than that right now,” particularly in the north which is approaching the 100% level, he said.

Israel’s UN Mission had no comment on the UN rapporteur’s statements.

Rajagopal said a recent report by the UN Development Program estimated that in May there were over 39 million tons of debris in Gaza, and he said that rubble is mixed with unexploded ordnance, toxic waste, asbestos from collapsed buildings, and other material.

“The groundwater pollution and the soil contamination are so catastrophic that we don’t know if they can ever be remedied in time for people to move back at least within this generation,” he said.

How long will it take to rebuild Gaza?

Rajagopal said first the debris has to be removed, secondly there must be financing, and then “there is another big elephant in the room, which is that no reconstruction can happen unless the occupation ends.” That’s because Israel has restricted building materials and equipment to rebuild, which it contends have dual uses, he said.

After the 2014 war in Gaza, Rajagopal said, less than 1,000 homes were built every year.

The UNDP report estimated that about 80,000 homes have been destroyed in the current war, so it would take about 80 years to rebuild if the occupation continues, he said.