President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan denounced Israel once again for its atrocities targeting Palestinians while speaking at his party’s parliamentary group meeting Wednesday.

He said Türkiye had no issue with the Israeli people while repeatedly slamming Netanyahu’s government. Erdoğan also said Hamas is not a terrorist group but a group of fighters defending its homeland. The president urged both sides of the conflict for an immediate cease-fire.

"Israel’s missile attacks and missile attacks to Israel should be ceased," he said, calling for emergency delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinian territories. Erdoğan said the sides and the international community should heed the lessons from previous failed peace talks, adding that Türkiye offered a new round of Palestine-Israel peace meetings and that the "unity" of Palestinians is necessary to pave the way for such a conference.

All parties in the Palestine-Israel conflict should take their fingers off the trigger, Erdoğan said.

Türkiye exerts efforts for mediation in the conflict but opposes the international community’s biased approach, siding with Israel solely while ignoring the tragedy of Palestinians in the Gaza enclave besieged by Tel Aviv. Erdoğan, one of the fiercest critics of Israel’s aggression toward Palestinians and an outspoken advocate of Palestinians’ rights, has also championed the normalization of Türkiye’s relations with Israel, dating back to the foundation of the state of Israel. Before the latest conflict erupted, Türkiye was taking strides to restore ties frayed by Israel’s stance against Palestinians, particularly on Gaza and illegal settlements.

‘Israel abused goodwill’

The president spoke about his first and only meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York in September on the sidelines of a United Nations summit and said he was planning to visit Israel for further thawing ties. He said he had now canceled this plan. "I shook his hands once only. I had good intentions. If they continued with good intentions, we would have better relations, but unfortunately, they abused our goodwill," he said.

Noting that Türkiye has no problem with the Israeli state itself, Erdoğan said his country will never approve of it committing atrocities.

The president paused his fervent speech for the screening of a compilation of videos showing Israel’s atrocities, as well as his famous "one-minute" incident in 2009. Erdoğan famously stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, after confronting then-Israeli President Shimon Peres on the Palestinian issue.

"We look at the Palestinian issue from a humanitarian window. We did everything to stop the crisis from growing since Oct. 7," he said.

Erdoğan also referred to Türkiye’s aid to Gaza, including eight airplanes full of humanitarian aid sent to Egypt for delivery through the Rafah border crossing. "We have a stance based on principles. We openly said that we cannot tolerate (acts of violence) toward Israeli civilians. We have no problem with the state of Israel, but we never approved of Israel’s cruelty more fitting to an organization rather than a state. Since Oct. 7, Israel has been carrying out bloodiest, most repulsive, most safe attacks against innocent people in Gaza," he said.

‘Hamas not terrorist’

He pointed out that almost half of the people killed by Israel’s attacks are comprised of children and their mothers. "This is sufficient to show that Israel is not acting in self-defense but commits savagery on a level with crimes against humanity. You cannot find another state or another army in the world bombing cities, hospitals, places of worship, schools and marketplaces night and day by warplanes just to kill children. The West sees Hamas as a terrorist group. I tell Israel here: The West owes you many things, but we are not indebted to Israel. Hamas is not a terrorist organization. It is a liberation group, a group of mujahideen fighting to defend its lands and people," he said, using a word of Arabic origin.

He said that when those who stood up for the world in Russia’s war on Ukraine are silent about the massacre in Gaza, this is the "most concrete expression of hypocrisy." Accusing countries outside the region of "adding fuel to the fire" in the name of supporting Israel, he said the U.S. would lose as it does not seem to want the world to be ruled fairly. Erdoğan earlier criticized the U.S. decision to send warships to the Eastern Mediterranean, apparently to assist Israel in case of need.

The conflict and subsequent reaction or lack thereof by the international community also gave Türkiye an opportunity to reiterate its call for a new, fair world order by reforming international institutions. Erdoğan, who slammed the United Nations Security Council for deepening the current crisis in a message issued on the occasion of the U.N. Day on Tuesday, expressed Türkiye’s concern on the issue. He said the U.N. has fallen into a state of despair and turned a blind eye to killings of children.

Türkiye’s objections to the unfair structure of the U.N. Security Council were again confirmed by recent news, he added, referring to how a Mideast cease-fire resolution was vetoed by one of the council’s five permanent members, a structure Türkiye has long cried foul over. Erdoğan reiterated his quotable slogan for U.N. reform, "The world is bigger than five," referring to the unrepresentative nature of the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent, veto-wielding members.

‘Western hypocrisy’

The president quoted from a poem by celebrated Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet, which denounces the killing of children in wars. "No one can sleep in peace in a world where children have to hug the bodies of their parents. Nobody’s future is safe in such a world," he said.

He stated that Israel cannot achieve anything with its current mindset, "whether you have the support of the West or others. U.S. will also lose as it failed to ensure justice and even opposed it," he said.

He accused the West of finding excuses for inhumane attacks, "something out of their own bloody past," referring to Western countries’ atrocities against native populations in the Americas and Africa.

Erdoğan highlighted that Türkiye never turned to racism and Jewish people know it very well. "Türkiye is the only state, the only country where anti-Semitism did not exist for centuries despite hosting Jews for centuries. The president noted that the West tried to silence criticism of Israel over Gaza attacks.

"We witness fascism among those staunchly defending pluralism and democracy. Türkiye will gladly embrace anybody who faces problems in their countries just because of their dignified stance (on Palestinian issue)," he said. He added that the silence over the massacre in Gaza of those who stood up for the world in the Russian war on Ukraine is the "most concrete expression of hypocrisy."

New peace talks

Underlining that countries outside the region are "adding fuel to the fire" in the name of supporting Israel, he said Türkiye is ready to be one of the guarantors of the Palestinian side with a humanitarian, political and military presence.

"We propose organizing an international Palestine-Israel peace conference in which all influential actors in the region take part," he said.

Erdoğan said Muslim countries must act together to secure a lasting peace in the region. "I invite all the countries with common sense and conscience to press on the Netanyahu government to turn the state of Israel back to common sense," he said. "Perpetrators of massacres and devastation in Gaza are those who give unlimited support to Israel. As long as the innocent die in Gaza, no political stunt, no warship, no fighter planes will bring peace to the region," he said. "The Israeli administration should turn to Türkiye for its safety, not those thousands of kilometers away. People of Israel will find a safe haven in Türkiye once their government boasting the support of those foreign powers abandon them, just like they did 500 years ago," Erdoğan said, referring to Sephardic Jews’ migration to the Ottoman Empire, which welcomed them centuries ago as they fled persecution in Europe.

"This should not be viewed as a conflict between the Crescent and the Cross. This mindset should be abandoned if we want peace to prevail. Unity of Muslim countries will facilitate the efforts for a cease-fire and, later, permanent peace. We expect the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to act, at least this time, in a way fitting its mission, which is defending the sacred status of Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause," he said.

He proposed that Türkiye was ready to be a guarantor for Palestinians and organize an international Palestine-Israel peace conference. "It should be an event setting out to achieve what its predecessors, whether in Madrid or Oslo, failed to do," he said.

He said missile attacks by Israel on Gaza and other Palestinian territories should stop. Israel should not be targeted by missiles as well, and the issue of hostages should be resolved quickly.

Erdoğan also called for an end to what he called "settler terrorism" in Ramallah and elsewhere, referring to illegal settlements.