Turkey's Erdogan denounces Israeli 'state terrorism'

Israel is carrying out “state terrorism” in Gaza by violating the international law and disregarding humanitarian values, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

“A dirty game is being played on the blood of innocent Palestinians,” Erdogan told his ruling Justice and Development Party’s parliamentary group meeting in Ankara.

“For how long more will the world remain silent to this state terrorism? In Palestine, innocent children are not the only ones who are being killed. Global justice is being killed there too.”

The Turkish premier also reiterated that a normalization of relations between Turkey and Israel should not be expected unless Israel stops its offensives against Palestinians.

Israeli warplanes have struck hundreds of civilian residential areas across the besieged enclave, which is home to around 1.8 million Palestinians. Israeli ground troops remain massed on the territory’s borders in advance of a potential ground assault.

At least 194 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1400 others injured in unrelenting Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since last Monday.

Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities in response to the ongoing Israeli attacks.

No Israeli fatalities have been reported thus far.

“The day will come when Israel will pay a price for shedding innocent Palestinians’ blood,” Erdogan said, vowing to continue to voice Turkey’s strong support for the Palestinian cause laudly.

This report was first published by Anadolu news agency.