Saving Palestinians from Israel’s oppression and stopping the massacres that are happening in front of the world’s eyes in Gaza is Türkiye’s duty, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Sunday.
“We will not leave our brothers in Gaza alone. It is a requirement of our responsibility towards history to call out the crimes of those who supported this immoral, unscrupulous, despicable massacre,” Erdoğan said during a rally in the Black Sea region’s Rize province.
The Turkish leader has harshened his rhetoric toward Israel in recent weeks, accusing Tel Aviv of “committing human rights violations” as Israeli airstrikes pound on the besieged Palestinian city for nearly a month now since the surprise offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.
Israel’s relentless airstrikes have killed over 9,770 people, nearly half of them – at least 4,800 children – in the blockaded city. They have destroyed hospitals, schools and places of worship, and have driven more than half the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes while food, water and fuel run low.
In the past two weeks, Israel widened its ground invasion and airstrikes into Gaza while the U.S. and other Western allies pledged unwavering support to Israel.
Erdoğan repeatedly slammed a “Western complicity” that “turns a blind eye to Israel’s attacks to destroy Gaza's health infrastructure, leaving infants and civilians for dead.”
He has also declared Türkiye would bring Israel’s “war crimes” to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ankara has floated a guarantorship model for the ongoing conflict where both Israel and Palestine would have guarantor countries, namely Saudi Arabia or Türkiye, as well as Western nations experienced in mediation.
Humanitarian aid has only been trickling into the blockaded city through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing, which the U.N. and human rights organizations have warned would “be nowhere nearly enough.”
