Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday slammed the United Nations for its inability to call for an effective cease-fire in the Gaza Strip with one voice.
"Israel's brutal attacks on Gaza and its population constitute war crimes. We urge all civilized nations to disassociate themselves from those crimes," Fidan told a U.N. Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.
Fidan said strong global institutions are needed in such dire times to enforce international law and protect the moral compass of humanity.
"Unfortunately, the Security Council which was entrusted by the U.N. Charter to do so, time and again failed to fulfill its responsibility to maintain international peace and security.
"It was unable to call for an effective cease-fire with one voice," he added.
The Security Council cannot even present a remedy to undo the historical injustice that the Palestinians have been suffering for many decades, he stressed.
"This paralysis will surely reverberate in coping with other global crises and further erode the council's credibility in the eyes of humanity. It also wrecks the rule-based international system that the United Nations was established upon.
"Without international law, principles and a moral compass, we are all in uncharted waters. If we don't fix this problem soon, we will all be haunted yet again by aggravated radicalism of all sorts, which will be feeding on impunity and injustice," he added.
Fidan said millions of people all around the world rallying in solidarity with Palestine expect the Security Council to ensure a cease-fire leading to the cessation of hostilities and enable unhindered humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
"We are also following the scenarios about the day after with grave concerns. Those deliberations give further ammunition to Israel to uproot millions of Gazans from their homeland and to impose upon them an oppressive regime.
"Therefore, we should translate this dark episode into an opportunity to address the root cause of the conflict. Otherwise, the symptoms that we see today will be more catastrophic tomorrow," he said.
He reiterated Türkiye's support for a two-state solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, which includes the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
"Israel and Palestine should be able to live side by side in peace and security along pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Palestine. We also have to make sure that such a settlement will be implemented, unlike past experiences," said Fidan.
Turning to Türkiye's proposal for a guarantor system in the conflict, Fidan said the mechanism would safeguard peace and prevent breaches from any of the parties.
"This could be envisaged in the process leading to the final agreement and become a part of the package.
"From the statements of our many partners, we understand that such a mechanism is indeed needed and supported," he said.
Israel has mounted a brutal offensive by air and ground against Gaza, killing more than 15,000 people, nearly half of whom were children. The offensive was in retaliation to a Hamas incursion in southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken captive.
Today, the U.N. says, all 2.4 million people in Gaza are going hungry and the war has displaced 1.65 million. Almost half the houses in Gaza were destroyed or damaged. Israeli airstrikes also targeted hospitals, schools, marketplaces, churches, mosques, refugee camps and more.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has demanded a "true humanitarian cease-fire," warning Gazans are "in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe."
Türkiye has harshly criticized Israel and offered unwavering support for Palestine, saying it will continue to make efforts to provide all kinds of support to the Palestinian people fully within the scope of humanitarian aid efforts.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called the Israeli attacks on Gaza a genocide and accused Israel of being a “terror state.” Israel rejects such charges and says it is acting in self-defense against a foe bent on its destruction.
Türkiye also doesn’t consider Hamas a terrorist group, unlike the United States, European Union and some Gulf countries. It has accused the West, apart from Spain and Belgium, of complicity due to their support of Israel.
Per Erdoğan’s promise to hold Israel accountable for crimes it committed against Palestinian civilians before the International Criminal Court (ICC), a delegation of 16 Turkish lawyers submitted three files of evidence to The Hague earlier this week.
Ankara has also so far sent health care workers and over 2,000 tons of aid on two ships and 11 planes, including medical supplies, field hospitals, ambulances, food, tents, sleeping bags, blankets, generators and hygiene supplies.
Working in coordination with Israeli and Egyptian authorities, Turkish officials have already evacuated dozens of injured Gazans and cancer patients, along with premature babies, toddlers and children, to Türkiye for better care.
Efforts are currently underway to set up a field hospital in Egypt’s border region for the civilians in the Palestinian enclave.
