Failure to stop Israel means downfall of humanity: Erdoğan
Children play together near shacks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, Oct. 30, 2024. (AFP Photo)


No deterrent steps are being taken to stop the "enemy of humanity (Benjamin) Netanyahu" in his war on Gaza and that is the downfall of humanity, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned Wednesday.

"We are living in shameful days for humanity as 50,000 innocents have been brutally murdered, 2 million bombarded in Gaza," Erdoğan told an award ceremony in Ankara.

"Aside from a few countries, there has been little strong reaction on Gaza from Islamic world, the Turkish president said, adding that this is being "recorded in history."

Erdoğan is a fierce critic of Israel's "genocidal" war in Gaza and its recent push into Lebanon, accusing the United Nations of failing to sanction Israel over the conflicts.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon since Sept. 23 against what it claims are Hezbollah targets, killing at least 1,542 people, injuring over 4,555 others and displacing more than 1.34 million people. It also began a ground invasion earlier this month.

The campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed more than 42,000 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Erdoğan has branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the "butcher of Gaza" and compared him to Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler.

"Israel has taken hostage all structures whose duty is to protect peace, human rights, freedom of press and democracy," he said.

"We have responsibilities toward our Gaza brothers, sisters who are burned alive, martyred by bombs of Zionist criminals in tents they were staying in."

Erdoğan warned Israel will subject 2 million people to "Nazi camp-like" suffering this winter and urged international action to "prevent humanity from hitting rock bottom."