The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday declared that he was breaking off contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what he described as Israel’s ‘unacceptable actions in Gaza.
‘Netanyahu is no longer someone we can talk to. We have written him off,’ Turkish media quoted Erdogan as saying.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Erdogan’s remarks is coming barely one week after Israel said it was “re-evaluating” its relations with Ankara because of Turkey’s increasingly heated rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.
Recall that Israel had a fortnight ago withdrawn all diplomats from Turkey and other regional countries as a security precaution.
Israeli forces have encircled Gaza’s largest city, trying to crush Hamas in retaliation for October 7 raids into Israel that officials say killed around 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took some 240 people hostage.
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Africa Today News, New York reports that the health ministry in Gaza, which is currently run by Hamas, had late last week come out to claim that more than 9,400 Gazans, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Israeli strikes and the intensifying ground campaign which began days ago.
Erdogan said Saturday that Turkey was not breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel.
“Completely severing ties is not possible, especially in international diplomacy,” Erdogan said.
He said MIT intelligence agency chief Ibrahim Kalin was spearheading Turkey’s efforts to try and mediate an end to the war.
“Ibrahim Kalin talking to the Israeli side. Of course, he is also negotiating with Palestine and Hamas,” Erdogan said.
But he said Netanyahu bore the primary responsibility for the violence and had “lost the support of his own citizens”.
“What he needs to do is take a step back and stop this,” Erdogan said.