Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday directed criticism at Israel by saying it was not conducting itself "like a state" in the Gaza Strip.
The comments come after Israel continued an indiscriminate bombing campaign of the blockaded coastal enclave, in retaliation to a surprise incursion by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
"Israel should not forget that if it acts more like an organization rather than a state, it'll finish by being treated as such," Erdoğan said, attacking the shameful methods of the Israeli army in the densely-populated Gaza Strip.
"Bombing civilian sites, killing civilians, blocking humanitarian aid and trying to present these as achievements are the acts of an organization and not a state," he said.
Türkiye usually uses the word "organization" when referring to terrorist groups like the PKK.
"We think that a war should have an ethic and that both parties should respect it. Unfortunately, this principle is gravely violated in Israel and in Gaza," he said, denouncing the "murders of civilians on Israeli territory" and "the blind massacre of innocents in a Gaza subjected to constant bombardment."
"The disproportionate and unscrupulous attacks on Gaza could bring Israel into an unexpected and undesirable place in the eyes of world public opinion," he added speaking in the capital Ankara.
On the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict that erupted late last week, Erdoğan said Türkiye does not find any action against civilians or any attack targeting civilian settlements to be justified.
"A conflict carried out with all kinds of shameful methods is not a war but a massacre," the president stressed.
