UPDATE - Israel took hostage institutions protecting peace, human rights: Turkish president

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS FROM TURKISH PRESIDENT

By Seda Sevencan and Muhammed Enes Calli

ISTANBUL (AA) - Israel has taken hostage all structures whose duty is to protect international principles such as peace, human rights, and democracy, the Turkish president said on Wednesday.

"The Israeli government, blinded by Zionist delusions, seizes not only the UN Security Council but all structures whose mission is to protect peace, human rights, freedom of the press, and democracy," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an event in the capital Ankara.

“The Gaza genocide has stripped the world of all masks. The Israeli administration’s disregard for the law has once again reminded us that the values the West claimed to be defending for decades are completely empty. We all see that what they call civilization is nothing but a toothless monster.”

“I have to express the following truth although it rends my heart: Our Islamic world, whose population is close to 2 billion, unfortunately has done badly in the test on Gaza and Lebanon. We couldn’t prevent 50,000 of our brothers and sisters from getting town apart in the killing machine of the Zionist regime.”

Erdogan condemned the global silence on the Gaza crisis, calling it “shameful” for humanity as civilians face relentless bombardment and worsening conditions in the Palestinian enclave.

“We are living in shameful days for humanity and civilization as 50,000 innocents, most of them children and women, have been brutally murdered and 2 million imprisoned in a small patch of land being bombed continuously” in Gaza, Erdogan said.

No deterrent steps are being taken to stop “the enemy of humanity, (Israeli President) Netanyahu,” he added, calling the situation “the downfall of humanity.”

Aside from a few countries, there has been no strong reaction on Gaza from the Islamic world, said the Turkish president, adding that this inaction is being “written down in history.”

“We have responsibilities toward our Gaza brothers and sisters who are burned alive, martyred by bombs of Zionist criminals in tents they were staying in,” the Turkish leader said.

Erdogan also warned that Israel will subject 2 million people to “Nazi camp-like” suffering this winter, urging action to “prevent humanity from hitting rock bottom.”

The Israeli army has continued a devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border incursion by Hamas last October, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

In more than a year, Israeli attacks have killed more than 43,000 people, mostly women and children, and over injured 101,000, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.