Turkish parliament commences closed session on situation in Lebanon, region

ANKARA

Turkish parliament on Tuesday commenced a sitting to discuss Israel's attacks on Lebanon and other developments in the region.

Lawmakers will be briefed by the government during the closed session in the capital Ankara, chaired by speaker Numan Kurtulmus, who said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and National Defense Minister Yasar Guler would be speaking on the agenda.

In his remarks before the closed session, Kurtulmus said, "We will fulfill all our responsibilities to extinguish this fire in the region."

"As the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, we must take firm steps forward in unity and solidarity against Israel's expansionist policies in the region, which we see as a national security problem," Kurtulmus added.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,250 people, injuring 3,618 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

At least 2,083 people have since been killed and 9,869 others injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching on Oct. 1 a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Serdar Dincel in Istanbul