Erdogan says Netanyahu 'will be tried as a war criminal'

Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, said on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, would eventually be tried as a war criminal over Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, while slamming Western countries supporting Israel, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Turkiye, which supports a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, has sharply criticised Israel over its campaign in Gaza, launched in response to militant group Hamas’s rampage on 7 October.  More than 15,500 people have been killed in the Israeli air and ground attacks, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

In a speech to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) committee meeting in Istanbul, Erdogan said the Western nations supporting Israel were giving it “unconditional support to kill babies” and were complicit in its crimes.

“Beyond being a war criminal, Netanyahu, who is the butcher of Gaza right now, will be tried as the butcher of Gaza, just as Milosevic was tried,” Erdogan said, in reference to Yugoslav ex-President, Slobodan Milosevic, who was tried for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes at a tribunal in The Hague.

READ: Erdogan: Israel’s Netanyahu will go down in history as ‘butcher of Gaza’