From the Liveblog of
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Erdogan: ‘Netanyahu’s genocidal methods would make Hitler jealous’
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has reached a level that would make Hitler jealous with the genocidal methods he has put forward.”
In comments to Greece’s Kathimerini newspaper, cited by Turkey’s Anadolu News, Erdogan claims Gaza was an “open-air prison, not just after October 7, but for years before, like a concentration camp.”
It is not the first time Erdogan has compared Netanyahu to the Nazi leader. In December he said the Israeli premier was worse than Hitler, drawing countercharges that he himself was guilty of genocide.
Erdogan and Netanyahu have a long history of public attacks on each other, which have ebbed and flowed alongside Israel and Turkey’s on-again, off-again alliance. The attacks had halted as Jerusalem and Ankara ties warmed, but the détente has seemingly fallen apart over the Israel-Hamas war.
Earlier this month, Ankara announced it would stop all exports and imports to and from Israel, in a highly impactful move against Jerusalem over the war against Hamas.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza was triggered by the October 7 terror onslaught, in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into the country, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seizing 252 hostages under the cover of thousands of rockets.
In response to the deadly assault, Israel launched an aerial campaign and subsequent ground operation, vowing to destroy Hamas and end its rule in the Gaza Strip.
The Times of Israel Community.