President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog that Türkiye is ready to contribute to the de-escalation of the situation at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as he said Ankara cannot remain silent amid ongoing provocations.
In a phone call held Saturday, Erdoğan told Herzong that necessary precautions need to be taken ahead of Muslims' itikaf isolation practice starting April 11.
He stressed that it is impossible for his country to remain silent in the face of provocations and threats to the status quo and spirituality of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
He told Herzog that calls by some radical Jewish groups to storm the compound are worrying.
In the phone call, the president and his Israeli counterpart Herzog discussed the latest raids by Israeli security forces on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as the harsh interventions against those at the holy sites, according to Presidential Communications Directorate.
Saying that the latest incidents wound the conscience of not only Muslims but all of humanity, Erdoğan stressed that Türkiye can in no way remain silent in the face of provocations and threats to the status quo and spirituality of Al-Aqsa, located in occupied East Jerusalem.
The tensions spreading to the Gaza Strip and Lebanon should not be allowed to escalate, he urged.
Stressing the need to prevent such incidents, which are repeated every Ramadan, from becoming the fate of the region, Erdoğan also voiced Türkiye's readiness to do its part to get to the root of the problem and take steps toward establishing a just and lasting peace.
The Israeli raids on the mosque triggered rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, with Israeli retaliating with airstrikes.
Palestinians accuse Israel of systematically working to Judaize East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, and obliterate its Arab and Islamic identity.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third-holiest site. Jews, for their part, call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two ancient Jewish temples.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.
Each year, Israeli forces ramp up violent and oppressive policies against Palestinians during the month of Ramadan.
Known for its unbreakable solidarity with Palestinians, Türkiye has been voicing support for the Palestinian cause in the international realm for decades. Turkish authorities emphasize that the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the Middle East is through a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue within the framework of international law and United Nations resolutions.
Despite the recent rapprochement, Turkish officials continue to criticize Israel’s policies targeting Palestinians, including the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.