UPDATE - Turkish parliament urges UN Security Council to convene urgently, adopts motion condemning Israel's Rafah attack

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK

By Aykut Yilmaz

ANKARA (AA) – The Turkish parliament on Wednesday called on the UN Security Council to urgently convene, adopting a motion condemning Israel's recent offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

"We invite the United Nations Security Council to urgently convene and make a decision to end Israel's attacks," the parliament said in the motion.

The motion criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration for continuing to target civilian areas, ignoring International Court of Justice's (ICJ) orders and perpetuating acts of atrocity.

It further condemned the Israeli attack on Gazan tents in Rafah, which had been designated as safe zones, with incendiary weapons, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of innocent people.

"Netanyahu and his gang, who disregard international treaties and legal rules, blatantly display an unprecedented form of racism with these murders,” it said.

"Israel, with its latest Rafah attack, has committed the vile example of crimes against humanity, turning its actions into genocide, surpassing even the practices of an apartheid regime."

Urging the international community to take steps to stop Israel and to recognize Palestine, it emphasized the need to provide the Palestinian people with a life worthy of human dignity.

An Israeli airstrike on a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah killed at least 45 people Sunday and wounded nearly 250, said the Gaza-based government media office.

The strike occurred near the logistics base of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Tal al-Sultan.

Israel has launched a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023 following a Hamas attack, killing more than 36,170 people and injuring 81,420 others.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of “genocide” at the ICJ, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan