Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday called for international sanctions against Israel to force it to stop "
massacring
" the Palestinians, during a telephone interview with Pope Francis according to the Turkish presidency.
Read also: Israel: international pressure increases as the death toll grows
"
Unless the international community punishes Israel, which is committing a crime against humanity, with sanctions, the Palestinians will continue to be massacred,
" Erdogan told the pontiff, according to the account of the telephone interview released by the Turkish Presidency. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ardent defender of the Palestinian cause, has been holding talks with foreign leaders and dignitaries for several days in an attempt to put an end to the vast Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Hostilities in Gaza erupted on May 10 with a barrage of rockets fired by the Palestinian movement Hamas into Israel in "
solidarity
" with the hundreds of Palestinian protesters injured in clashes with Israeli police in occupied East Jerusalem. At the origin of the demonstrations, the threat of forced eviction of Palestinian families for the benefit of Israeli settlers. Since May 10, 197 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 58 children, and more than 1,200 injured. On the Israeli side, ten people were killed, including a child, and 294 injured after rocket fire from Gaza.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the Pope that "
the Israeli occupier, which blocks access to the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (in East Jerusalem), restricts freedom of worship and kills civilians innocent people on Palestinian land,
”according to the same source. "
This barbarism also threatens regional security
," he added. He further called on the international community to "
give Israel the dissuasive lesson it deserves and to take concrete steps in this direction
." Pope Francis warned on Sunday against the "
spiral of death and destruction
" in the clashes in the Middle East, deeming "
terrible and unacceptable
" the loss of innocent lives in this conflict.
