Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called upon people worldwide to speak out against the Israeli bombing of hospitals, schools, mosques, and churches in Palestine's Gaza.
"Humanity must prevent further violations of international law in Gaza," Erdogan said in a letter to Pope Francis on Saturday, emphasising that innocent people and civilian infrastructure should never be targeted, even in times of war.
Stressing that killing is forbidden in all Abrahamic faiths, he said humanity "must raise its voice against the deliberate bombing of hospitals, schools, mosques and churches that should not be violated, even in wartime."
"The challenges that we face, particularly the indiscriminate Israeli attacks in Gaza, where deaths by starvation occur due to the failure to deliver humanitarian aid even during the holy month of Ramadan, and the global impact of the Ukraine War, which is now in its third year, require the international community to act in cooperation and coordination," Erdogan said.
The Turkish president added that establishing lasting peace and stability in the Middle East is not possible without a fair resolution of the Palestine-Israel issue.
"An independent, sovereign and geographically integrated Palestinian State within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, must emerge and take its place in the global system as an equal member of the international community," he underlined.
Pope grateful for Erdogan's peace efforts
Head of Türkiye's Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ali Erbas, conveyed Erdogan's letter during his visit to the Pope, who he said was grateful to the president for "what he has done."
"Pope Francis emphasised that our president is one of the few leaders who works hard for world peace, and who has the power to achieve this," Erbas said.
Erbas also said that the focus of their meeting was "the murders, massacres and crimes against humanity committed by Israel in Palestine."
"Jerusalem, the symbol of peace and coexistence, is under Israeli oppression, everywhere, regardless of Muslims or Christians, babies or innocent children, mosques or churches. We are faced with a situation where everyone, including children, elderly, sick and women, is being massacred," Erbas added.
"We expressed the need to work together to put an end to this situation and to draw more attention to Palestine and Gaza and to stop Israeli oppression."
Israel's war on besieged Palestinians of Gaza — now in its 190th day — has killed at least 33,686 Palestinians and wounded over 76,309 others since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on October 7, which killed around 1,200 people.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85 percent of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
