Erdoğan calls Netanyahu “butcher of Gaza”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “the butcher of Gaza”, AFP reported on Wednesday.

The Turkish president also accused Netanyahu of spawning anti-Semitism across the world.

Erdoğan has repeatedly attacked Israel for the scale of death and destruction it committed in Gaza, labelling Israel a “terrorist state”.

“Netanyahu has already written his name in history as the butcher of Gaza,” Erdoğan said on national television.

The president also accused him of “endangering the security of all Jews in the world by supporting anti-Semitism with the murders he committed in Gaza.”

Last year, both Türkiye and Israel re-appointed ambassadors after ties were broken for a decade.

However, the attacks on Gaza prompted Türkiye to withdraw its Tel Aviv envoy as a respond to the war crimes committed by Israel.

Erdoğan also said that Netanyahu’s government was complicating efforts of extending the truce in Gaza by discussing plans to eradicate Hamas.

“Statements made by the Netanyahu administration diminish our hopes for the humanitarian pause to be transformed into a lasting ceasefire,” he explained.