UN, West just watching Israeli crimes in Gaza Strip: Erdogan
At least 92 Palestinians were killed and 123 others were injured over the last 24 hours
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday criticised the UN and Western countries for ‘just watching the humanitarian crimes’ committed by Israel in Gaza for the last 140 days.
“So much so that the UN Security Council does not and cannot call for an immediate cease-fire,” Erdogan decried, speaking at a meeting of the Justice and Development (AK) Party in Turkey’s northwestern province of Sakarya.
“Neither Western powers nor the UN Security Council have made a useful effort to prevent Israeli violence,” he stressed.
At least 92 Palestinians were killed and 123 others were injured over the last 24 hours as Israel continues its onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Saturday. “The Israeli occupation committed eight massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, leaving 92 martyrs and 123 injured over the past 24 hours,” a ministry statement said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
Flouting the International Court of Justice’s provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where at least 29,606 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 69,737 injured since October 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85 per cent of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
For the first time since its creation in 1948, Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the
United Nations, over its Gaza war.
An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Offensive in Rafah
Meanwhile, Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz threatened on Friday that the army ‘will eventually launch its much-anticipated offensive’ in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
“The fighting will continue also in the future, deep within the enemy’s territory and not along the border,” Gantz said in a video message shared on social media. “We will protect the communities (Israeli settlements in the Gaza envelope) with increased forces and we will reach every place where Hamas fighters are.”
He also addressed residents of Israeli towns in the Gaza envelope. “The decision to return is in your hands. The state will assist all families or communities to make the right decision for them.
We will provide you with all the civil services,” he said, adding that their security is the government’s responsibility.
The Israeli government has evacuated residents in dozens of settlements and towns in the Gaza envelope to hotels and guest houses across Israel since the beginning of the war on October 7. Many have refused to return while the war is ongoing.
On the northern front, Gantz pointed out that the war ‘will not end until northern residents can return’.
“We are working militarily and politically. Hezbollah has already been pushed from the border, and we are preparing for the day the order is given when we need to expand our activities.”
Many residents of northern towns have also been displaced due to border fighting that erupted between the army and resistance factions in Lebanon, led by Hezbollah, since October 8. Gantz’s threats come in conjunction with the start of meetings in Paris, with the participation of Qatar, Egypt, US and Israel, to discuss ways to calm the situation in Gaza and reach an agreement to exchange Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages.
Israel’s participation in the meetings marks a notable development in the course of the war, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided February 13 not to send a delegation back to Cairo for further talks.
Neither Western powers nor the UN Security Council have made a useful effort to prevent Israeli violence RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN