Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would eventually be tried as a war criminal over Israel's ongoing genocide-level attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip, while slamming Western countries supporting Israel.
Türkiye, which supports a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, has sharply criticised Israel over its genocide-level attacks on Gaza Strip, launched in response to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas' rampage on Oct. 7.
In a speech to an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) committee meeting in Istanbul, Erdoğan 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," Erdoğan 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.
"Those who try to skip over the deaths of all those innocent people by using the excuse of Hamas have nothing left to say to humanity," he added, referring to Western powers, which he said were "blind and deaf".
Erdoğan said a contact group of Muslim countries, which was formed by the OIC and Arab League last month to hold talks on Gaza with Western countries and others, would continue discussions until the fighting in Gaza stopped, but added more must be done.
"We must absolutely evaluate the United Nations Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court (ICC) within this framework," he said, adding Israel's nuclear arsenal must not be forgotten.
Erdoğan, who has long called for the United Nations Security Council to be reformed to be more inclusive, also said that the U.N had failed the test in Gaza and called for an urgent reform, repeating that the Security Council's five permanent members - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - did not represent the world.
"The sincere efforts of Secretary General (Antonio) Guterres were sabotaged by the Security Council members," he said. "None of us have to accept this system," he added.
"It is not possible for such a structure to bring peace or hope to humanity."
The Israeli army resumed bombing the Gaza Strip early Friday after declaring an end to a week-long humanitarian pause.
Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.
The death toll from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has surged to 15,523 since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7, the Health Ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave announced on Sunday.
The official Israeli death toll stands at 1,200.
A total of 120 countries voted in favour of the resolution, 14 countries voted against including Israel and the United States, while 45 others abstained.
