Intimidating and killing journalists has been Israel's fundamental strategy of covering up the truth in Gaza since Oct. 7, Türkiye's director of communications said Friday as he addressed a symposium on "Media's Struggle for Truth in the Gaza War: Violence, Disinformation, Censorship" in Istanbul.

Emphasizing the death of 120 journalists in Gaza resulting from Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded enclave launched in response to an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said, "If it weren't for the efforts of these heroes, the world would not be aware of Israel's massacres and the oppression faced by the people of Gaza today."

Altun accused Western media outlets of "playing the three monkeys" in the face of Israeli violations, against which "the whole world should stand up."

"Israel commits crimes while systematically lying, concealing what's happening on the ground and portraying false events," the director said. "Israel is attempting to annihilate a city, a people for good, they are killing civilians, women and children, before the eyes of the whole world."

Listing Israel's deliberate targeting of health care workers, journalists and civil society volunteers, he stressed the need to "clearly and unequivocally state that Israel is committing war crimes and engaging in genocide."

"This is not a case of bio-politics but a direct policy of genocide," Altun continued. "It is necessary to understand, analyze, identify and fight against this genocidal policy in all its dimensions."

"And in order to understand and effectively combat this genocidal intent, it is essential to problematize Israel's image-manufacturing institute," he said. "Because Israel is an empire of lies."

Türkiye has been working since Oct. 7 to bring global attention to Israel's genocide in Gaza, to expose its systematic disinformation campaigns and to amplify the voice of the oppressed people of Gaza, Altun added, stressing that his country considers this as "a historic responsibility and a moral duty."