Anti-Israel protests rock cities (to the point of being banned in France), anti-Semitism emerging in prestigious universities, a Molotov cocktail in a Canadian city, a US congressman with a Palestinian flag waved in front of his office.
Hamas against Israel. Where does it end?
Or perhaps, more correctly, it’s just the beginning? Because now we’re at the hostage-taking phase.
Thankfully, everyone is safe after a former employee took seven hostages at gunpoint Thursday at a Procter & Gamble factory in Gebze, Turkey, protesting the war between Israel and Hamas, according to news reports.
“The attacker has been arrested by law enforcement,” a P&G spokesperson told CBS News. “The detained personnel were safely evacuated.”
Around 3pm local time, the gunman entered P&G’s American plant in Turkey’s Kocaeli province.
He called for a ceasefire in Gaza and took hostages, resulting in 9-10 hours of negotiations, various media reported.
Riot police stormed the factory as the gunman took a bathroom break, Agence France-Presse and the Times of Israel reported.
“Our esteemed police members and our heroic security forces carried out the necessary intervention as soon as we were sure that no harm would come to the hostages,” Governor Seddar Yavuz said via state-run Anadolu news agency, according to ABC News.
“The fact that no one was injured is our greatest relief,” was the reaction of the P&G spokesperson. “We are grateful to the authorities and first responders who handled the situation with courage and professionalism.”
The suspect was also unharmed, ABC said.
Initial reports about the existence of two gunmen were incorrect, a government official said.
Turkish media showed a suspect inside the factory holding a gun and apparently carrying some sort of explosive.
A black and white veil covered the man’s face, and he was shown next to a graffitied wall with flags of Turkey and Palestine and a writing that read: “The gates will open. Either musalla or death for Gaza”.
Musalla means a Muslim prayer area, usually related to funerals.
After the gunman took the hostages, police sealed off roads in the area and began negotiations, which ultimately ended in the raid, CBS reported.
Public sentiment in Turkey against Israel and the United States has increased following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli civilians.
It doesn’t help that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed an anti-Israel attitude, calling Israel a “terrorist state” and comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, CBS reported.
In November, Brian Nelson, the US Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, expressed concern that Turkey was linking Hamas with financial resources, the Financial Times reported.
In addition to protests surrounding the Gaza situation, and now the P&G hostage incident, there have been attacks on iconic U.S. companies such as McDonald’s and Starbucks in Turkey, the news outlet reported.
P&G is headquartered in Cincinnati. Its factory in Gebze mainly produces cosmetics.
The company has 700 employees in a total of three locations in Turkey, including Istanbul and Kocaeili province.
In addition to cosmetics, P&G products manufactured in Turkey include cleaning and hygiene products, including toothpaste.
This article originally appeared in The Western Journal.