ANKARA – Turkey will not allow the issue of Israel’s nuclear weapons to be dropped from the global agenda, President Tayyip Erdogan said, while attributing European support for Israel to what he called “the shame of the Holocaust”, Reuters reports.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Erdogan said the West was trying to “vindicate” what he said were Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, adding Western countries had a “fraternity of lies” with Israel which he called “shameful”.
“The shame of the Holocaust has literally taken European leaders hostage,” he said. “We, as Turkey, will not allow the issue of Israel’s nuclear to be forgotten.”
UN protectorate in Gaza is not a solution, says Guterres
A UN protectorate in Gaza would not solve the conflict there, the body’s secretary general said, calling instead for a “transition period” involving Arab nations and the United States and leading to a two-state solution, AFP reports.
Antonio Guterres said it was “important to be able to transform this tragedy into an opportunity” — which, for him, meant moving “in a determined and irreversible way to a two-state solution.”
This means, after the current fighting between Israel and Hamas fighters in Gaza ends, “a strengthened Palestinian Authority, assuming responsibilities in Gaza,” he said.
But the Palestinian Authority cannot go into Gaza backed by Israeli tanks, he added — meaning the “international community needs to look into a transition period”.
“I do not think that a UN protectorate in Gaza is a solution,” however, Guterres said.
WHO chief ‘appalled’ by Israeli attack on Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital
The head of the World Health Organisation said he was “appalled” by an attack on the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza.
“Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital,” he said on social media platform X.
Israel’s far-right finance minister demands expanded war cabinet
Israel’s far-right finance minister, who has so far been excluded from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, has called on lawmakers for taking a harder line towards Hamas to be included in decisions about the conflict, Reuters reports.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and other hardline members of the broader cabinet have been excluded from much of the decision making, and were particularly critical of a decision last week to accede to a US request to allow some fuel into Gaza for humanitarian reasons.
“I think this grave mistake necessitates the expansion of the war cabinet,” said Smotrich, arguing that letting in fuel gave Hamas a lifeline during the conflict.
Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.
Smotrich, in a statement, said the war cabinet should include “opinions that until today have not been heard”, including from those with a record of calling for Hamas to be eliminated. –Agencies
