TRT correspondent reveals plight of Gazans

Mehmet Akif Ersoy, a war correspondent for the state-run TRT, spoke to Turkey's conservative newspaper Yeni Safak of his experiences in Gaza two days after his return home.

The seasoned correspondent explained the range of emotions as well as the scenes, from a woman's desperate search for her child to Hamas' apology for not being a proper host, and the Israeli soldier's surprising statement, 'We could not eve bear to kill a kitten'.

Ersoy said that he would never forget how desperately a Palestinian mother was looking for her son who had gone missing. 'We were outside the Shifa hospital to join an evening broadcast. I saw a mother running to every ambulance which carried bodies to the hospital. She noticed the body of a young boy and immediately ran to see if he was hers,' said Ersoy, referring to what he witnessed before one of his live broadcasts outside the Shifa.

'She did not know what to do when she realized that the boy in the ambulance was not hers. She did not know if she should have been pleased with this or have felt pain, because the young victim was another mother's loved one,' he said.

'OFFENSIVE MEANS BECOMING A MARTYR IN GAZA'

The reporter also said he has never seen a Palestinian who has rebelled against Allah for killing his family members. 'After the air strike, everybody was running to the hospital to see if their relatives were injured or dead. Everybody was looking for their children or spouses. Each time, the hustle and panic came to the end within an hour,'

'Then, they stopped for a moment and thanked Allah for their loved ones had become martyred. They were always repeating the Islamic confession of faith,' he said.

Ersoy also said the Hamas military wing chose to protect him rather than make their voice heard through the state-run Turkish television. 'The leaders of the al-Qassam Brigades did not accept an interview with me, but they conveyed a message in which they said if I had talked to them I would have become an Israeli target,' Ersoy said.

'They did not want me to get hurt from any Israeli response. They even apologized for not being able to host me properly,' the TRT correspondent added. 'Let's think for a moment. These fighters will die perhaps tomorrow or earlier than tomorrow, but they feel sorry as they could not offer me something,' he said.

'WE CAN NOT BEAR KILLING A KITTEN'

Ersoy thinks that the Israeli public has been forced to believe that Palestinians, even newly-born babies, must be killed for them to survive. 'Despite their armored vehicles and body armors, Israeli troops are so afraid when a missile has been fired from Gaza. They have just focused on what the state has imposed through visual media. They think Hamas must be crushed because it is a terrorist organization,' he said.

'When I showed a picture of babies whose bodies were torn apart, one Israeli soldier said they can not even bear to kill a kitten. But they have to kill Palestinians because the latter would kill them if they allow them to live', Ersoy said.