Turkey has doubled down on a pledge to block NATO cooperation with Israel until a “permanent cease-fire” is in place in Gaza, amid an escalating war of words over the humanitarian crisis in the region.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier this week accused Israel of violating the fundamental human rights of Palestinians in its military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
“The brutal murder of innocent people by Israel in hospitals where they go for treatment, in ambulances, in marketplaces, in centers where humanitarian aid is distributed, and in areas defined as safe, is the gravest violation of human rights,” Erdoğan said in an interview with Newsweek.
“Western nations that provide Israel with weaponry,” the Turkish leader argued, “do so at the expense of being complicit in these violations.”
“Until comprehensive, sustainable peace is established in Palestine, attempts at cooperation with Israel within NATO will not be approved by Turkey,” Erdoğan said on Friday at a summit of alliance members in Washington.
Later that day, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz hit out at the Turkish president in an unvarnished statement posted to social media site X. “You decide nothing,” Katz said.
“A country like Turkey, which supports the murderers and rapists of Hamas and the Iranian axis of evil, should not be a member of NATO,” Katz said.
The exchange has prompted a furious response from Turkey’s foreign ministry, which accused Katz of “disrespect, lies and slander.” The Israeli government, the ministry said, “is trying to prolong its life in power by killing innocent Palestinians, and creating unrest and instability in our region.”
Official estimates say at least 38,345 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s offensive in October last year, which followed Hamas’ October 7 attacks that took the lives of 1,139 people. The UN Security Council has backed a U.S.-led resolution calling for an ‘immediate, full and complete ceasefire’ to prevent further suffering and ensure access to humanitarian aid amid warnings of imminent famine.
Erdoğan has positioned himself as one of the strongest advocates for Palestinians on the world stage, meeting in April with Ismail Haniyeh, the head of militant group Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007. “The strongest response to Israel and the path to victory lie in unity and integrity,” Erdoğan said during the summit.
In an appeal on Friday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that “Palestinians in Gaza keep being forced to move like human pinballs across a landscape of destruction and death … nowhere is safe, everywhere is a potential killing zone.”
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