Gaza cease-fire can save region from ring of fire, says Turkish President Erdogan

ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that if Türkiye and Germany jointly achieve a humanitarian cease-fire in the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza, the region can be rescued from the ring of fire.

Speaking at the joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Erdogan said 13,000 Palestinians — including children, women and elderly people — have been killed so far in the war and almost all of Gaza has been destroyed due to Israel’s attacks on the besieged enclave.

Reminding that places of worship, churches, and hospitals are being targeted in Gaza, Erdogan said the Torah does not allow the bombing of hospitals and the killing of children.

“It is against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But as seen here, how are these children being shot? How are they being killed in hospitals?” he said. “We didn’t put ourselves through something like the Holocaust. I made my stance on anti-Semitism as a prime minister.”

Erdogan noted that German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will visit Israel soon and he will ask him to broker a cease-fire in Gaza.

He emphasized the significance of both countries’ potential contributions to a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and highlighted the importance of taking steps in this regard.

A two-state solution based on the 1967 borders is now inevitable, he added.

“I believe that everyone should contribute to securing a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

The Palestinian death toll from an ongoing Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip has surged past 12,000, the government media office in the besieged enclave said on Friday.

“The victims include more than 5,000 children and 3,300 women, while 30,000 others have been injured,” the media office said in a statement.