The Turkish foreign minister on Tuesday called for sanctions against Israel, urging the international community to cut support over the conflict in the Middle East, Agence France-Presse reported.
“We have reached the limit of words, diplomacy and international politics. We must start with sanctions,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told ruling party delegates at a meeting about the future of Palestine.
Turkey has long been a fierce critic of Israel’s now year-long military campaign in Gaza and its recent deadly push into Lebanon, accusing the United Nations of failing to sanction Israel over the conflicts.
Fidan said Israel had not so far responded to calls to halt the Gaza war, meaning “the international community must now resort to legal action. Israel needs to be boycotted,” he said.
Israel was “not paying any price economically, politically or militarily” for its actions in Gaza, and the only way that would change was if the world “cut off support.”
“If we cannot, Israel will continue the genocide and massacre in Gaza,” he said.
Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan again described the Gaza bloodshed as “genocide,” saying that the 12 months of conflict was “the common shame of all humanity.”
The Gaza war began with Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, more than 42,300 people have been killed in Gaza since then, mostly civilians. The UN has said the figures are reliable.
Erdoğan has branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the “butcher of Gaza” and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.