Turkey is providing documents, mostly visuals, on Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday lambasted the US and Britain for launching military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, continuing his harsh anti-Western rhetoric since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
“All that has been done is a disproportionate use of force,” Erdogan said after Friday prayers in Istanbul, referring to the strikes in Yemen. “At the moment, they are trying to turn the Red Sea into a sea of blood, and Yemen, with the Houthis and by using all of its force, says it is and will give the necessary response in the region to the United States, Britain.”
The US and Britain overnight launched dozens of air strikes across Yemen in retaliation against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control much of the country including the capital, for attacks on Red Sea shipping. Houthi forces have carried out several attacks on ships heading to Israel to support the Palestinians since the eruption of the war in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel.
The rebel movement — whose slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam” — has also claimed responsibility for attempted drone and missile strikes targeting Israel itself.
As a result of the Red Sea attacks, a number of major shipping lines have announced they would forgo the vital trade route and instead opt for a longer, pricier journey around Africa.
Turkey, a NATO member, has previously condemned Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and supported UN-led talks between the Houthi rebels and Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
Nonetheless, Erdogan said Turkey heard from various channels that the Houthis were conducting a “very successful defense, response” against the US and Britain, adding that Iran was looking at “how it can protect itself against all that is happening.”
Erdogan’s comments were the latest in a string of remarks against Western countries, who he has lambasted for supporting Israel in its defensive war against Hamas following the Palestinian terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel communities.
“Those who try to skip over the deaths of all those innocent people by using the excuse of Hamas have nothing left to say to humanity,” he said last month, referring to Western powers, which he called “blind and deaf.”
In a separate development on Friday, the Turkish leader said his country was providing documents to support South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) charging Israel with committing genocide in Gaza.
“I believe Israel will be convicted there. We believe in the justice of the International Court of Justice,” Erdogan told reporters, adding that Turkey would continue to provide documents, mostly visuals, on Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Israeli officials have strongly condemned the ICJ proceedings, noting that the Jewish state is targeting terrorists who use civilians as human shields in its military campaign.
Erdogan has been one of Israel’s harshest critics since the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, repeatedly attacking the Jewish state. Last month, he accused Israel of operating “Nazi” concentration camps and compared his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler.
Weeks earlier, Erdogan said that Netanyahu was a “butcher” who would be tried as a “war criminal” over Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza. He has also called Israel a “terror state.”
Turkey hosts senior Hamas officials and, together with Iran and Qatar, has provided a large portion of the Palestinian terror group’s budget.
Several Western and Arab states designate Hamas, an offshoot of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, as a terror group.
However, Erdogan has defended Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
Israel withdrew all its troops and civilian settlers from Gaza in 2005.
Turkey has ridden a wave of antisemitism since the Oct. 7 atrocities. Among the legislative proposals currently being debated by the Turkish parliament is a ban on individuals from holding joint Turkish and Israeli citizenship and another on the sale of land in Northern Cyprus — illegally occupied by Turkey since 1974 — to “Jews and Israelis.”
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