Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he called Israel a “terrorist state” amid the ongoing war with Hamas.
Accusing him of supporting the “terror state of Hamas”, Netanyahu said on X, formerly known as Twitter, “By contrast, there are forces that support the terrorists.
“One of them is President Erdogan of Turkey, who calls Israel a terrorist state, but supports the terror state of Hamas and bombed Turkish villages inside Turkey itself. So, we’re not going to get any lectures from them.”
Israel has been launching massive retaliatory assaults against Gaza’s Hamas rulers after its fighters carried out an attack on October 7 in which at least 1,200 people were killed.
According to the latest update by the Hamas-run health ministry, at least 11,320 people have been killed in Gaza so far, including 4,650 children. Meanwhile, 3,600 civilians, including 1,750 children, have been declared missing.
Here are the latest updates on the Israel-Hamas war:
- The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday approved a resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors” in Gaza after four failed attempts to respond to the Israel-Hamas war. The resolution received support from twelve states, while the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom chose to abstain from the vote. The resolution’s final draft watered down its language from a “demand” to a “call” for humanitarian pauses. It also watered down a demand for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups.”
- The Shifa hospital in Gaza has become a symbol of the widespread suffering of Palestinian civilians in the war between Israel and Hamas.
- The Israeli military has claimed that it found more evidence that Hamas uses hospitals as bases of operations and the storage of explosives and weapons for terrorist purposes. According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), an operational headquarters, weapons, and technological equipment were found in the MRI building at Shifa Hospital.
- A total of 644 people traveled through the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt on Wednesday – including 587 dual nationals, 37 people either injured or sick, and 20 of their companions.
- US President Joe Biden on Thursday said that he made it clear to Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu that a two-state solution was the only answer to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict and that occupying Gaza would be a mistake.
- Biden also said that he was “mildly hopeful” there would be a deal to free Hamas-held hostages in Gaza. He also asked Israel to be “incredibly careful” in its military moves around hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
- Meanwhile, the diplomatic missions comprised of family members of Israeli hostages held in Gaza as well as people murdered by Hamas during the October 7 attack, initiated by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Foreign Ministries, are expanding and reaching Latin America. The members of the delegation are reportedly expected to meet with the members of the two houses of representatives of Mexico – the Senate and the Congress – and with the Catholic vice-cardinal of Mexico, Bishop Salvador Gonzalez Morales.