ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday slammed the United Nations Security Council which was unable to pass a resolution for a humanitarian pause in the conflict between Palestinian and Israeli forces to allow aid to reach civilians in Gaza.
Erdogan has long criticised the UN Security Council’s structure, saying the five permanent members of the council, which includes the United States who vetoed Wednesday’s resolution, are not reflective of the international community and unable to take swift decisions.
In a post on social media platform X, Erdogan said Turkish efforts to establish calm in the region had been hindered by the “collective punishment” of Palestinians through air strikes and the deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers to the region.
“The United Nations Security Council, which has become even more ineffective, has once again not fulfilled its responsibility,” Erdogan said.
“Western countries, which leave no stone unturned when it comes to human rights and freedoms, have taken no steps other than adding fuel to the fire,” he said, while criticising the “biased and two-faced” media coverage of the conflict.
On Tuesday, Erdogan said a blast at a hospital in Gaza was an example of “Israel’s attacks devoid of the most basic human values”. Israel has said the blast was caused by Palestinian militants.
Erdogan said on Wednesday this amounted to “genocide”, the first time he used that term since the conflict began, but this time he did not name Israel as the perpetrator of the hospital attack.
“The heinous attack against the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital yesterday has brought the massacre in Gaza to another level,” he said. “I condemn the perpetrators of this attack, which amounts to a crime against humanity and genocide against the people of Gaza,” he added.
Biden, visiting Israel, said that based on information he had seen the hospital blast appeared to be the result of an errant rocket fired by a “terrorist group”, echoing Israel’s view.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Rod Nickel)
