February 10, 2024
Israel’s war in Gaza is comparable
to the massacres committed by Nazi Germany during World War II, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. This comes as the Israel Defense
Forces (IDF) ramp up their ground assault against Hamas militants in the
southern part of the densely populated Palestinian enclave.
“In front of the eyes of the whole
world, Israel’s occupying forces brutally martyred 28,000 of our Palestinian
brothers and sisters, most of them children and women,” Erdogan said at the Islamic
Cooperation Youth Forum. The IDF’s strikes on schools, hospitals, mosques, and
other civilian sites are “attacks reminiscent of the Nazis,” he added.
A vocal critic of Israel, the
Turkish leader has repeatedly compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to
Adolf Hitler and condemned the military operation in Gaza.
The bombing campaign and subsequent
ground invasion has displaced around 85% of Gaza’s population and left around
570,000 Palestinians facing starvation, according to the UN. Around 1.4 million
of the besieged enclave’s pre-war population of 2.2 million have fled to the
southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt, after Israel called for
civilians to evacuate to the south.
Israel declared war on Hamas in
response to the October 7 terrorist attack, in which around 1,200 people were
killed and more than 200 were taken hostage. Dozens of hostages have since been
released as part of a prisoner swap during a weeklong ceasefire in November.
Netanyahu’s office announced on
Friday that the IDF will strike into Rafah to eliminate Hamas’ “intense
activity” in the city. The Israeli military and officials have said they
are doing everything they can to minimize the civilian death toll. The Jewish
state’s diplomats have accused Hamas of using schools, hospitals, and other
sites as cover for rocket attacks and have told the UN that the militants are
using civilians as human shields.
Last month, the Hague-based
International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must “take all measures within
its power” to prevent a genocide in Gaza. Netanyahu rejected the ruling as “not
only false, but outrageous.”
Israel’s war on Gaza live: Gaza death toll passes 28,000
- Gaza’s health ministry says 117 Palstinians have been killed and 152 wound during the past 24 hours.
- As Israel intensifies its attacks on Rafah, people are now escaping to the central part of the Gaza Strip about 20km (eight miles) away.
- Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who went missing after the family’s car came under Israeli fire, was found dead along with the two medics dispatched to look for her.
- UN chief Antonio Guterres says half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population “is now crammed into Rafah with nowhere to go”, warning the displaced “have no homes” and “no hope”.
- At least 28,064 people have been killed and 67,611 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.
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