ANKARA – Turkiye on Saturday “strongly” condemned Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and said it is ‘unacceptable that civilians, including children, lose their lives in attacks.”
The Foreign Ministry urged “restraint and common sense” amid rising tension in the region following the deadly attacks on the blockaded enclave.
“We are deeply concerned about the rising tension in the region after the attacks. We emphasise the need to end these events before they turn into a new spiral of conflict,” Anadolu Agency reported the ministry said.
Earlier, the UN envoy for the Middle East Peace Process said he is “deeply concerned by the ongoing escalation between Palestinian militants and Israel, including the targeted killing today of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader inside Gaza.”
“In the past few hours, at least 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes. I am deeply saddened by reports that a five-year-old child has been killed in these strikes. There can be no justification for any attacks against civilians,” Tor Wennesland added.
He called the continuing escalation “very dangerous” and urged an immediate end to rocket launches from the Gaza Strip toward Israel.
“And I call on all sides to avoid further escalation,” he said.
He said the current situation will jeopardise humanitarian efforts to help rebuild Gaza.
According to Anadolu Agency, Wennesland vowed that the UN is “fully engaged” with all parties to “avoid a further conflict which would have devastating consequences, mainly for civilians.”
Jordan on Friday demanded that Israel “immediately stop” its aggression on the Gaza Strip.
The Foreign Ministry urged the international community to take “urgent and effective” action to stop the escalation and provide protection to the Palestinian people.
Anadolu Agency reported the ministry’s spokesman Haitham Abu Al-Ful warned of “dangerous” consequences for the Israeli escalation and terrorising civilians, which “will only increase tension and violence and deepen the environment of despair.”
He said: “The solution to the problem of the Gaza Strip and preventing the escalation of violence lies in finding a real political horizon by returning to the negotiating table to achieve a just peace on the basis of the two-state solution.”
Al-Ful also said what would solve the problem would also be “lifting the unjust siege on the Gaza Strip, promptly addressing the humanitarian needs in it, and respecting the rules of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy.”
Meanwhile, Qatar also voiced its strong condemnation of Israeli “aggression” against the Gaza Strip.
In a statement, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry stressed “the need for the international community to act urgently to stop the repeated attacks by the occupation against civilians, especially women and children.”
The statement reiterated Qatar’s “firm” position on the justice of the Palestinian cause, the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, and the establishment of their independent state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, it reported.
The Gaza-based Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes resulted in 10 deaths, including a 5-year-old girl and injuries to 44 other Palestinians.
The Islamic Jihad movement said Taysir al-Jabari, its commander for the northern region of Gaza, was killed in the airstrikes.
The Israeli army confirmed that it had targeted al-Jabari and 10 others, claiming they were on their way to launch anti-tank missiles and sniper operations.
According to an Anadolu Agency reporter in Gaza, Israeli warplanes hit separate areas in Gaza City, Khan Yunis and the northern Gaza Strip. Among the targets that the army raided was an apartment in Burj Palestine, in the Rimal neighborhood in western Gaza City.
The Palestinian Authority also urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop the aggression against Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, and provide residents with international protection.
