Turkey has led international diplomatic condemnation of Israel after its troops entered the Shifa hospital complex in Gaza, as the UN and aid agencies expressed concern about the impact of the Israeli operation on staff and patients. 

Speaking in parliament, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, described Israel as a “terror state” that was committing war crimes and violating international law in Gaza, and he repeated his view that Hamas was not a terrorist organisation. 

Erdogan called on Benjamin Netanyahu to announce whether Israel had nuclear bombs or not, and claimed that the Israeli leader was finished in his post. He went on to say Turkey would work on the international stage to ensure Israeli settlers were recognised as terrorists. 

Turkey has withdrawn diplomats from Israel amid the Israeli response to the 7 October Hamas attack. Israel has never disclosed in public whether it possesses nuclear weapons, although earlier in the war against Hamas a junior minister in Netanyahu’s government stated that dropping a nuclear weapon on the Gaza Strip was an option.

Erdogan’s latest comments drew a fierce response from Israel, where the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said: “We won’t take lessons in morality from President Erdo?an, a man with an appalling human rights record. 

“Israel is defending itself against brutal terrorists from Hamas-Isis, some of whom have been allowed to operate under Erdo?an’s roof.” 

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had already enraged Israel by calling on its forces to stop “killing babies”. 

Israel is under pressure internationally to produce evidence that the basement of the hospital was being used as a Hamas HQ, as it has long claimed. Troops had found weapons and “terror infrastructure” at one specific location within the hospital, a senior IDF official said. Hamas said the claim was a “blatant lie”.

(Source: The Guardian)