ISTANBUL, August 4. /TASS/. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has called on the West to exert pressure on Israel on the issue of settling the situation in the Gaza Strip not to be its "genocide partner."

"The Rafah crossing is closed. The other side of the border is completely destroyed. A human tragedy is unfolding some 100 meters from us, with genocide being practiced. Around 25 trucks can enter Gaza per day. If we don’t stop this massacre, we will be accomplices in the crime, so, we must try to offer all possible help, to intensify pressure. Western countries, especially the United States, must break the silence and exert pressure on Israel. Otherwise, they will be its genocide partners," the TRT Haber television channel quoted him as saying while visiting the Rafah crossing on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.