ANKARA, February 9. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes Israel’s bombardments of the Gaza Strip are comparable to the Nazi atrocities committed during World War II.

"Before the eyes of the entire world, Israel, its occupational forces are killing Palestinians, mainly women and children. Thousands of our Palestinian brothers have been tortured to death. More than 67,000 innocent Palestinians have been wounded in Israeli strikes targeting the civilian population. Religious sites, schools, hospitals, and the entire civilian infrastructure are targeted by Israeli attacks comparable to Nazi atrocities," he said in an address to participants in the youth forum of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul.

According to the Turkish leader, his country and other Muslim countries are sparing no effort to draw the attention of the global community to Israel’s crimes against humanity and their violations of the rules of warfare. "We continue diplomatic efforts to make sure that Islamic countries react and act jointly against Israel’s oppression in Gaza. We will continue our struggle until an independent, sovereign and territorially integral Palestinian state is created within the 1967 borders with a capital in East Jerusalem," Erdogan said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidanm in turn, noted that the world community "was either silent or supported the massacre in the Gaza Strip, which means that international law no longer exists." He also stressed that what is going on in Gaza "is not a local war" and this war "will affect the entire world" if hostilities continue and the situation is not settled on the two-state principle. He also called for "immediate diplomatic pressure on Israel."