Turkey Orders Muslim Brotherhood TV Channels to Stop Attacking Egypt

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a symbolic funeral ceremony for former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, June 18, 2019, at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. (AFP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a symbolic funeral ceremony for former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, June 18, 2019, at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. (AFP)
TT
20

Turkey Orders Muslim Brotherhood TV Channels to Stop Attacking Egypt

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a symbolic funeral ceremony for former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, June 18, 2019, at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. (AFP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a symbolic funeral ceremony for former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, June 18, 2019, at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. (AFP)

Turkish authorities have ordered Istanbul-based TV channels affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood to stop airing criticism and incitement leveled against Egypt and Gulf states immediately.

The move represents the first real step taken by Ankara towards improving ties with Egypt after it had repeatedly claimed to have a desire to turn over a new leaf in its relationship with the African country.

The dispute between Ankara and Cairo began after the Egyptian army ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi, who was an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Egypt later recognized the group as an extremist organization which caused multiple Muslim Brotherhood members and their supporters to flee to Turkey after their activities were banned in the country.

Turkey issued an order for three Muslim Brotherhood channels (El Sharq TV, Watan TV, Mekameleen) to immediately stop airing political shows critical of Egypt and to only air non-political shows and series.

Penalties will be imposed on those who defy the order; this includes permanently closing down the TV stations.

Ayman Nour, head of El Sharq TV, confirmed that Turkish officials demanded that the channels tone down their rhetoric as Turkey seeks warmer ties with Egypt.

In a tweet, Nour ruled out Turkish authorities shutting down any channel but acknowledged that the media outlets were under pressure to dim criticism of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s rule.

Nour described the order from Turkish authorities as a “crisis” that he had hope for the channels to overcome.

He added that Ankara was now “focused on media conduct in the context of these latest exchanges between Turkey and Egypt.”

Turkish officials demanded that stations and media outlets “commit to respecting the charters of journalistic ethics.”

Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Erdogan, said the move said that move by Turkish authorities followed a recognition that the stations were broadcasting inappropriate political content that contradicts journalistic ethics.

Aktay claimed that the Turkish authorities were unaware of the content being spread by the networks until they were notified by the Egyptian government.

He also denied Ankara was planning to expel or hand over Egyptian journalists and political opponents to Cairo.

“Turkey will not arrest anyone or hand anyone over,” Aktay said on social media.

Egypt’s Minister of Information Osama Heikal said he welcomed news of Turkey’s decision to ban anti-Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood channels, referring to it as “a good initiative.”

Heikal said the decision “creates an appropriate atmosphere for discussing controversial issues.”

And he said Egypt’s position was constant and worked to “develop relations with everyone according to common interests."



Israeli Troops Killed 15 Palestinian Medics and Buried Them in a Mass Grave, UN Says

Funerals held at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, for eight health workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent who were killed in an Israeli attack eight days ago in Rafah and had been pulled from the rubble. (Doaa El-Baz/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
Funerals held at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, for eight health workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent who were killed in an Israeli attack eight days ago in Rafah and had been pulled from the rubble. (Doaa El-Baz/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
TT
20

Israeli Troops Killed 15 Palestinian Medics and Buried Them in a Mass Grave, UN Says

Funerals held at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, for eight health workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent who were killed in an Israeli attack eight days ago in Rafah and had been pulled from the rubble. (Doaa El-Baz/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
Funerals held at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, for eight health workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent who were killed in an Israeli attack eight days ago in Rafah and had been pulled from the rubble. (Doaa El-Baz/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)

Palestinians held funerals Monday for 15 medics and emergency responders killed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza, after their bodies and mangled ambulances were found buried in an impromptu mass grave, apparently plowed over by Israeli military bulldozers.

The Palestinian Red Crescent says the slain workers and their vehicles were clearly marked as medical and humanitarian personnel and accused Israeli troops of killing them "in cold blood." The Israeli military says its troops opened fire on vehicles that approached them "suspiciously" without identification.

The dead included eight Red Crescent workers, six members of Gaza’s Civil Defense emergency unit and a staffer from UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinians. The International Red Cross/Red Crescent said it was the deadliest attack on its personnel in eight years.

Since the war in Gaza began 18 months ago, Israel has killed more than 100 Civil Defense workers and more than 1,000 health workers, according to the UN.

Here is what we know about what happened.

Missing for days

The emergency teams had been missing since March 23, when they went at around noon to retrieve casualties after Israeli forces launched an offensive into the Tel al-Sultan district of the southern city of Rafah.

The military had called for an evacuation of the area earlier that day, saying Hamas fighters were operating there. Alerts by the Civil Defense at the time said displaced Palestinians sheltering in the area had been hit and a team that went to rescue them was "surrounded by Israeli troops."

"The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on 23 March," the UN said in a statement Sunday night.

Further emergency teams that went to rescue the first team were "struck one after another over several hours," it said. All the teams went out during daylight hours, according to the Civil Defense.

The Israeli military said Sunday that on March 23, troops opened fire on vehicles that were "advancing suspiciously" toward them without emergency signals.

It said "an initial assessment" determined that the troops killed a Hamas operative named Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight other fighters. Israel has struck ambulances and other emergency vehicles in the past, accusing Hamas militants of using them for transportation.

However, none of the dead staffers from the Red Crescent and Civil Defense had that name, and no other bodies were reported found at the site, raising questions over the military’s suggestion that alleged fighters were among the rescue workers.

The military did not immediately respond to requests for the names of the other alleged fighters killed or for comment on how the emergency workers came to be buried.

The United Nations on Monday demanded "justice and answers" for the Israeli killings of emergency responders.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher made the demands saying: "They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives."

After a ceasefire that lasted roughly two months, Israel relaunched its military campaign in Gaza on March 18. Since then, bombardment and new ground assaults that have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry’s count does not distinguish between fighters and civilians, but it says over half those killed are women and children.

Aid workers say ambulance teams and humanitarian staff have come under fire in the renewed assault. A worker with the charity World Central Kitchen was killed Friday by an Israeli strike that hit next to a kitchen distributing free meals. A March 19 Israeli tank strike on a UN compound killed a staffer, the UN said, though Israel denies being behind the blast.

Mass grave

For days, Israeli forces would not allow access to the site where the emergency teams disappeared, the UN said.

On Wednesday, a UN convoy tried to reach the site but encountered Israeli troops opening fire on people.

The convoy saw a woman who had been shot lying in the road. The dashboard video shows staff talking about retrieving the woman. Then two people are seen walking across the road. Gunfire rings out and they flee. One stumbles, apparently wounded, before he is shot and falls onto his face to the ground. The UN said the team retrieved the body of the woman and left.

On Sunday, the UN said teams were able to reach the site after the Israeli military informed it where it had buried the bodies, in a barren area on the edges of Tel al-Sultan. Footage released by the UNshows workers from PRCS and Civil Defense, wearing masks and bright orange vests, digging through hills of dirt that appeared to have been piled up by Israeli bulldozers.

The footage shows them digging out multiple bodies wearing orange emergency vests. Some of the bodies are found piled on top of each other. At one point, they pull out a body in a Civil Defense vest out of the dirt, and it is revealed to be a torso with no legs. Several ambulances and a UN vehicle, all heavily damaged or torn apart, are also buried in the dirt.

"Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave," said Jonathan Whittall, with the UN humanitarian office OCHA, speaking at the site in the video. "We’re digging them out in their uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives."

"It’s absolute horror what has happened here," he said.

Funerals

A giant crowd gathered on Monday outside the morgue of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis as the bodies of the eight slain PRCS workers were brought out for funerals. Their bodies were laid out on stretchers wrapped in white cloth with the Red Crescent logo on it and their photos, as family and others held funeral prayers over them. Funerals for the seven others followed.

"They were killed in cold blood by the Israeli occupation, despite the clear nature of their humanitarian mission," Raed al-Nimis, the Red Crescent spokesperson in Gaza, told the AP.

Israeli troops have killed at least 30 Red Crescent medics over the course of the war. Among them were two killed in February 2024 when they tried to rescue Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old girl who was killed along with six other relatives when they were trapped in their car under Israeli fire in northern Gaza.

From Geneva, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Jagan Chapagain, said the staffer killed last week "wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked."

"All humanitarians must be protected," he said.