Israel said Saturday it was recalling its diplomatic staff from Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a fierce attack on its military operation against Hamas militants in Gaza.
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The announcement dealt a body blow to the sides’ nascent efforts to restore political and economic relations after a decade of all but frozen ties.
Israel and Turkey – an overwhelmingly Muslim nation that forms the bulwark of NATO defences on the edge of the Middle East – had only just agreed to reappoint ambassadors last year.
They were also resuming discussions on a US-backed natural gas pipeline project that could have formed the basis for much closer and more lasting cooperation in the coming years.
But their relations unravelled as Erdogan began to pick up the pace and venom of his attacks on Israel’s retaliatory military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas militants staged a surprise attack on October 7 during which they killed 1,400 people – mostly civilians – and seized more than 220 hostages.
The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza has said Israeli strikes have killed 7,703 people – also mainly civilians – with more than 3,500 of them children.
Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted party staged a massive rally in Istanbul on Saturday that the president said drew a crowd of 1.5 million people.
Bugün İstanbul’da Filistin davasına sahip çıkan, Gazzeli mazlumlara umut olan aziz milletimin her bir ferdini tebrik ediyorum.
Tüm ülkeleri, Gazze’de çocuklar, kadınlar ve masum sivillerle birlikte enkaz altında kalan insanlığın ortak değerlerine sahip çıkmaya çağırıyoruz. 🇹🇷🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/Vq9aZOW79e
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) October 28, 2023
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Source : france24
