The UN Security Council must act quickly to protect the Palestinians, the Turkish president told his Russian counterpart.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the international community should “teach Israel a strong and dissuasive lesson” on its conduct towards the Palestinians.
Erdogan made the comment during a phone call with Putin on Wednesday, Turkey’s Presidential Communication Directorate said, in the middle escalation of violence in occupied East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Hostilities erupted after Hamas, which rules the besieged Gaza Strip, issued an ultimatum on Monday demanding that Israel withdraw its security forces from the compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City after a violent repression against the Palestinians.
Monday marked the third consecutive day that the Israeli police had attacked Islam’s third holiest site, firing rubber-coated steel shells, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian worshipers in the last days of the holy month of Ramadan
The escalation was sparked by Israel’s plans to evict residents from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for Israeli settlers.
Gaza’s health ministry said the total death toll since the start of the latest offensive was 56, including 14 children. More than 300 others were injured. Six Israelis were also killed.
Turkish statement on Wednesday said Erdogan stressed the need for “the international community to teach Israel a strong and dissuasive lesson” and urged the UN Security Council to act swiftly with “determined and clear messages. To Israel.
The statement said Erdogan suggested to Putin that an international protection force to protect the Palestinians should be considered.
Erdogan expressed at the end of last year the desire to see the relations between Turkey and Israel improve, after years of disagreement over Tel Aviv’s occupation of the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians.
Turkey, which in 1949 became the first Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel, cut ties with Israel for the first time in 2010.
This was after 10 pro-Palestinian Turkish militants were killed by Israeli commandos who boarded a Turkish-owned ship, the Mavi Marmara, which was part of a flotilla trying to provide aid. and break Israel’s maritime blockade on Gaza.
The Israeli blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip has been in place since June 2007, when Israel imposed a hermetic blockade by land, sea and air over the region.
They reestablished ties in 2016, but relations deteriorated again in 2018.
In May of the same year, Ankara withdrew its envoy for deadly attacks on Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip protesting against US President Donald Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have often exchanged angry remarks, but the two countries continue to trade with each other.
In August this year, Israel accused Turkey of giving passports to a dozen Hamas operatives in Istanbul, describing the move as “a very hostile measure” that its government would raise with Turkish officials.
Hamas seized the besieged Gaza Strip from forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 after winning the 2006 parliamentary elections. Since then, Israel has severely stepped up its siege and launched three protracted military attacks. against Gaza.
