UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS FROM TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER
By Muhammed Enes Calli
ISTANBUL (AA) — The Israel-Palestine conflict requires a new "guarantee mechanism," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday.
"There should be a guarantee mechanism for monitoring, verifying, (and) when needed, enforcing the obligations of the parties in a just peace," Fidan said, addressing the Cairo Peace Summit in Egypt.
"Türkiye remains ready to further develop this concept and share the responsibility for creating a dignified, just, and secure future for all," he added.
Fidan said that Israel "imprisons" the 2 million inhabitants of besieged Gaza, which has become "unfit for decent human life," while branding it "a protection against terrorism."
"By dehumanizing Palestinian lives, Israel aims to normalize Palestinian suffering. We say, never. Never for Palestinians, never for anybody else."
He said that if Israeli attacks were to continue, these attacks would threaten global stability and peace with geographical escalation.
"Unconditional military aid to Israel or coercing regional countries to unrealistic and unsustainable plans serve nothing but deepening occupation," he added, underlining that such policies ignore the Palestinians.
Asserting that current international order has been unable to produce a solution to "core problems," Fidan said it has only caused the "erosion of universal values and distortion of facts on the ground."
"Up until now Israel took advantage of this systemic failure," he further added.
Pointing to "collective and cruel suffering" being inflicted on people in Gaza, Fidan underscored that no reason could justify it.
"We must be unequivocal in condemning and resisting the loss of any single innocent life," he said.
Urging the international community to calibrate its actions and messages at this "highly critical point" in history, he said Israel should understand that "temporary so-called victories" of the past did not bring long-term security then and would not now, either.
A sovereign, independent, and territorially contiguous Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem based on the 1967 borders is a must for peace and a strategic imperative for international security and stability, he stressed.
The summit, held with international, Arab and UN participation, is discussing the unfolding situation in Gaza, the future of the Palestinian cause and the peace process.
The conflict in Gaza began when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a multi-pronged surprise attack that included a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel by land, sea, and air. It said the incursion was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and growing violence by Israeli settlers.
The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, along with stepping up raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank.
In addition to launching a sweeping bombardment campaign ahead of an expected ground invasion, Israel ordered a "full siege" on Gaza that has led to electricity supplies being severed as water, food, fuel and medical supplies run out.