Israel's efforts to divert attention from the atrocities they are committing against Palestinians in Gaza will not produce results, Türkiye's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Öncü Keçeli said Friday.
"Efforts by members of the Israeli government to divert the attention from the atrocities they perpetrate will not yield any result," Keçeli said.
He was responding to a question about a social media message posted by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who wrongly accused Türkiye of committing genocide.
Keçeli said Türkiye is "closely" following South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
"We are very concerned with the reports that Israel's war crimes may amount to genocide, and closely following the hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Israel's breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention," Keçeli said in a statement.
"Israeli occupation, Israeli expansionist mentality, and actions that completely ignore human rights, international law and moral principles have led to the catastrophic situation in Gaza," he said.
On the second day of the hearing in The Hague, Israel rejected the accusations brought by South Africa to the ICJ that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide.
Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip from the air and land, imposed a siege and mounted a ground offensive in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.
At least 23,708 Palestinians have been killed and 60,005 injured in the Israeli onslaught since then, according to Gaza's health authorities.
The revised death toll in Israel from the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,200.
