Türkiye vows to step up efforts to restore Gaza cease-fire

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hit out at Israel’s resumption of attacks on Gaza, pledging more efforts for resumption of cease-fire

Türkiye will increase its diplomatic efforts to stop the “massacre” and restore cease-fire in Gaza, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Tuesday.

Speaking at a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner, Erdoğan branded Israel a “terror state” following the most intense Israeli airstrikes in Gaza since a fragile cease-fire took effect.

“Perpetrators of the atrocity in which over 400 Palestinians were martyred will account for every drop of blood,” Erdoğan said.

“The Zionist regime has once again shown that it is a terror state that feeds on the blood, lives and tears of the innocent with its brutal attacks on Gaza last night,” he said.

“Türkiye will firmly stand against those who, with the delusion of a promised land, seek to drown the region in blood, tears, oppression,” he added.

Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people early on Tuesday, breaching the fragile cease-fire reached on Jan. 19 and drawing global condemnation.

“Imagine the plight of 330 innocent people. They were murdered during sahur (the meal eaten by the Muslim faithful before the start of the daily fast) by the Zionist regime. Most of them were women and children,” Erdoğan said before an update to over 400 on the death toll.

Türkiye, which has often slammed Israel over its Gaza strikes, urged the international community to “take a decisive stance” against Netanyahu’s government on Tuesday.

“At a time when efforts to achieve global peace and stability are intensifying, the aggression displayed by the Israeli government threatens the future of the region,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “It is unacceptable that Israel is causing a new spiral of violence,” it added, saying Israel “defies humanity … in the gravest way.”

NATO member Türkiye has been a traditional ally to Palestine, but the more brutal Israeli attacks became, the harsher Ankara has made its criticism. It has condemned what it calls genocide, halted all trade with Israel and applied to join a genocide case against Israel at the World Court, which Israel rejects.

In addition to delivering humanitarian aid, the Turkish government has sought to rally international organizations, including the United Nations, NATO, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to both restrain Israel and encourage cooperation between Palestinian factions, most notably between Hamas and the Fatah movement.

Israeli strikes killed at least six Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, local health workers said, as the Israeli military resumed its bombardments and issued new orders for residents to evacuate combat zones. The Israeli army said it had struck a Hamas site in northern Gaza, where it had detected preparations for firing into Israeli territory.

Tuesday’s casualties were the highest single-day death tolls since the beginning of the conflict, with Israel warning the onslaught was “just the beginning.” Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaching the truce, which had offered a respite for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents after 17 months of the conflict that has reduced the enclave to rubble and forced the majority of its population to displace multiple times.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army dropped leaflets on areas in Beit Hanoun and Khan Younis in the northern and southern Gaza Strip, ordering residents to evacuate their homes, warning they were in “dangerous combat zones.”

“Staying in the shelters or the current tent puts your lives and that of your family members in danger; evacuate immediately,” read a leaflet dropped on Beit Hanoun.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he had ordered strikes because Hamas had rejected proposals to secure an extension of the cease-fire until April. Hamas, which still holds 59 of about 250 hostages Israel says the group seized in its Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack, accused Israel of jeopardizing efforts by mediators to negotiate a permanent deal to end the fighting.