500,000 turn out for pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul

Led by president’s son Bilal Erdogan, mass of protesters march under banner reading ‘We won’t remain silent, we won’t forget Palestine’

Hundreds of thousands of people joined a New Year’s Day rally for Gaza in Istanbul on Thursday, waving Palestinian and Turkish flags and calling for an end to violence in the war-torn territory.

Demonstrators gathered in near-freezing temperatures under cloudless blue skies to march to the city’s Galata Bridge for a rally under the slogan: “We won’t remain silent, we won’t forget Palestine.”

More than 400 civil society organizations were present at the rally, one of whose organizers was Bilal Erdogan, the youngest son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Police sources and Anadolou state news agency claimed some 500,000 people had joined the march, at which there were speeches and a performance by Lebanese-born singer Maher Zain of his song “Free Palestine.”

“We are praying that 2026 will bring goodness for our entire nation and for the oppressed Palestinians,” said the younger Erdogan, who chairs the board of the Ilim Yayma Foundation, an educational charity that was one of the organizers of the march.

Istanbul has been the site of some of the most widely attended protests against Israel since the war in Gaza began after the Hamas terror group’s invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

This aerial picture shows thousands of people protesting in support of Gaza at the Galata Bridge in Istanbul on January 1, 2026. (Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

Relations between Israel and Turkey — formerly close allies — have collapsed, with Ankara severing its trade with Israel, closing its airspace to Israeli official flights (but not commercial ones) and issuing arrest warrants for 37 Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Turkish government, and especially President Erdogan, have been among the most vocal critics of the Jewish state since the war began, with Erdogan repeatedly likening Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and Israel itself to Nazi Germany.

Despite the often dramatic war of words between the two countries, US President Donald Trump recently called Erdogan “a very good friend” during a joint press event with the visiting Israeli premier, insisting that “we’re not going to have a problem” between Jerusalem and Ankara.

Trump added that Netanyahu “respects” Erdogan and that “he’s done a fantastic job… I’m with him all the way, I’m with Bibi all the way.”