Overview

• The Turkish presidency published Emine Erdogan’s letter via the state agency Anadolu calling on the U.S. first lady to advocate for children in the Gaza Strip.
• Erdogan asks Melania Trump to write to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help end the humanitarian crisis.
• The message invokes Melania Trump’s recent letter about Ukrainian children that President Trump handed to Vladimir Putin at an Alaska meeting.
• Erdogan cites casualty figures from the conflict, including 62,000 civilians killed in under two years with 18,000 of them children.
• The outreach follows the IPC’s announcement of famine conditions in parts of Gaza on Friday, which Netanyahu denounced as a “flat lie” as tensions between Turkey and Israel continue.