President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday blasted Israel for condemning the people of Gaza to famine, saying that images coming from the Palestinian enclave were worse than “Nazi camps.”
“Israel’s use of hunger as a weapon, especially against Palestinians, is the clearest indication that they have not taken any share of humanity,” the Turkish leader said at a press conference in Ankara.
“Images coming from Gaza are far worse, more brutal, and inhumane than those from Nazi camps. A people is being killed by hunger and thirst before the eyes of the world,” he added.
The World Food Program, UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization warned that time was running out and that Gaza was “on the brink of a full-scale famine.”
Erdoğan once again called Israel a “terrorist state” and claimed it subjected “our Gazan brothers … to genocide.”
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 that resulted in the death of 1,206 people and the taking of some 250 hostages.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, the Israeli military has killed at least 60,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 142,000 since October 7, 2023.
Two prominent human rights organizations in Israel on Monday joined a number of international rights organizations, UN human rights experts and scholars in accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel released separate reports on Monday based on studies of the past 21 months of conflict, saying Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and that the country’s Western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is also examining a case brought by South Africa alleging that Israeli forces are committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
© Agence France-Presse