GAZA CITY
A Palestinian charity organization on Wednesday planted 301 olive saplings in memory of the victims of a coal mine disaster that occurred in western Turkey earlier this year.
"We planted 301 olive saplings in memory of the miners who lost their lives in May's mine disaster in Soma [in western Turkey]," Basha Mattar, head of Al-Rahma, a Palestinian NGO, told The Anadolu Agency.
The saplings were planted on the NGO's farm in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
"The gesture, which was supported by the Turkish community in Austria, aims to assert the deep ties between the Palestinian and Turkish peoples," Mattar said.
On May 13, an explosion in a mine in Turkey's western town of Soma claimed 301 lives and left 486 people injured.
The Soma tragedy was the worst mining disaster in Turkey's history, surpassing a 1992 firedamp explosion in Zonguldak in northern Turkey that killed 263 miners.
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