Türkiye on Tuesday blamed the United States and other Western nations for enabling Israel to commit “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
“The genocide in Gaza cannot continue without the support of the U.S. and some other Western countries,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told reporters at a joint news conference with his Cambodian counterpart Sok Chenda Sophea in Ankara.
“It’s not an acceptable excuse that Israel continues massacring a nation in the name of self-defense,” Fidan stressed.
Condemning Israel for conducting what he described as “the hardest, most inhumane possible activities” in Gaza, Fidan said he believes Israel will “not go unpunished for the genocide it’s committing and receive the necessary treatment from both humanity and international law.”
“The killing of an Egyptian soldier by Israel on the Rafah border crossing has once again demonstrated the very prevalent threat of a spillover risk,” Fidan added.
World nations have been calling on Israel to halt its operation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where airstrikes at a tent camp near a U.N. logistics base killed 45 people alone on Sunday, adding to the devastating death toll of more than 36,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7.
Israel has steadily ignored warnings from the U.S., its biggest military supplier, and other close allies against a full-fledged offensive in the city, with the Biden administration saying it would cross a red line. Last Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) told Israel to immediately halt its offensive on Rafah, an order it has no power to enforce.
Washington has so far refused to take any concrete action to stop Tel Aviv and Biden himself defended Israel’s ongoing onslaught, saying what is happening in the enclave was “not genocide.” The U.S. has also vetoed a widely-backed U.N. General Assembly resolution that would have paved the way for full U.N. membership for Palestine and several other resolutions calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
“Türkiye will continue working for Palestine to be recognized as a state,” Fidan continued.
Welcoming Spain, Norway and Ireland’s move to recognize Palestine formally, Fidan said the international community was “moving slowly and late, however, they must back Palestine’s efforts to become a state now more than ever.”
As part of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Arab League Contact Group on Gaza, the Turkish diplomat will be in Madrid on Wednesday on the occasion of Spain’s official recognition of Palestine.
The meetings will focus on the efforts to achieve a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and to encourage more countries to recognize the State of Palestine based on a two-state solution, Fidan's office said.
