The Turkish leader reportedly said the Jewish state has killed 14,000 children in Gaza
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Israel of outdoing Adolf Hitler by killing 14,000 children in Gaza, Anadolu news agency reported on Wednesday.
Speaking to a meeting of his Justice and Development (AK) Party legislators in the Turkish parliament, Erdogan said that the Palestinian cause has given his life meaning, according to the news agency.
“As long as God grants me life, I will continue to defend the struggle of Palestine, and will be the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people,” the Turkish leader said.
He also compared the struggle of Hamas to the Turkish war of independence (1919-1922) and reminded the MPs that he had stood up for the Palestinian militant group at the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“When no one else would speak, we stood up and said: ‘Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a resistance group.’ We presented maps at the UN showing how Israel has gradually occupied the lands of Palestine over the past 70 years,” he said.
Erdogan accused Israel of committing massacres in both Gaza and the West Bank that are “marks of shame in human history,” with “unconditional support” from the West.
Almost 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave over the past six months, according to the local health authorities, while another 77,000 have been injured. The Hamas-run Gaza government says most of the casualties have been civilians, though it is unclear where Erdogan got the number of dead children. Statistically, nearly half of the population of Gaza is under the age of 18, according to numerous reports.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the Gaza-based group raided nearby Israeli villages and military bases on October 7 last year. West Jerusalem has said over 1,100 Israelis were killed and over 200 taken hostage in the attack, which has been described as one of the worst in the Jewish state’s history.
The UN has estimated that 85% of the Palestinian enclave’s residents have been internally displaced and face acute shortages of food, water and medication, while more than half of Gaza’s infrastructure has been damaged or outright destroyed. A recent report by UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese has accused Israel of intending to commit genocide in the enclave.
