By Gozde Bayar

ANKARA (AA) - All parties in the Palestine-Israel war should take their fingers off the trigger, said the Turkish president on Wednesday, urging an immediate cease-fire in the conflict.

At the Justice and Development (AK) Party’s parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said before Oct. 7, when the conflict erupted, he had planned to visit Israel but then canceled his plans.

Noting that Türkiye has no problem with the Israeli state, Erdogan said his country will never approve of it committing atrocities.

Almost half of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza so far are children, showing that the aim is deliberate brutality to commit crimes against humanity, he added.

He said that when those who stood up for the world in Russia’s war on Ukraine are silent about the massacre in Gaza, this is the “most concrete expression of hypocrisy.”

Accusing countries outside the region of “adding fuel to the fire” in the name of supporting Israel, he said the US will lose as it does not seem to want the world to be ruled fairly.

Türkiye is deeply saddened by the helplessness the UN has fallen into, and no one takes it seriously as it turned a blind eye to the brutal killing of children, he added.

Türkiye’s objections to the unfair structure of the UN Security Council were again confirmed by recent news, he added, referring to how a Mideast cease-fire resolution was vetoed by one of the council’s five permanent members, a structure Türkiye has long cried foul over.

Erdogan reiterated his quotable slogan for UN reform, “The world is bigger than five,” referring to the unrepresentative nature of the UN Security Council’s five permanent, veto-wielding members.

The Jewish people know well that Türkiye is the only land that has been without antisemitism for centuries, he added.

The conflict in Gaza, which has been under Israeli bombardment since Oct. 7, began when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a multi-pronged surprise attack that included a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel by land, sea, and air. It said the incursion was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and growing violence by Israeli settlers.

The Israeli military then launched a relentless air campaign against the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 7,200 people have been killed in the conflict, including at least 5,791 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water, medicines and fuel, and aid convoys allowed into Gaza have carried only a fraction of what is needed.