Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Israel’s siege and bombing of Gaza in retribution for a strike by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas was an excessive response that amounted to a “massacre”.
Erdogan and his foreign minister spoke on the phone with regional leaders, the US, and others while Ankara offered to mediate.
Israel’s representative in Ankara, meanwhile, has stated that it is too early to talk about mediation.
Speaking to his ruling AK Party in Parliament, Erdogan said even war had a “morality” but the flare-up since the weekend had “very “severely” violated that.
“Preventing people from meeting their most basic needs and bombing civilian housing is not a war, it’s a massacre,” he said, alluding to Israel cutting off electricity and water to Gaza and destroying infrastructure.
Ankara, unlike the EU and the US, does not consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization.
Turkey has claimed that the fighting is the result of years of injustices against Palestinians and that a two-state solution, even without directly accusing Israel, is the only way to bring about peace.
Erdogan criticized Israel’s “disproportionate” attacks on Gaza on Wednesday, calling them “devoid of any ethical foundation” and urging people not to “blindly” support one side.
He cautioned that failure to address the fundamental problem will result in fresh, more deadly wars.
Everyone should refrain from acts that will wholly punish the Palestinian people, like blocking humanitarian aid,” he said.
