Turkish PM, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called Israel a terrorist state, following its bombing of the Gaza Strip. "Those who associate Islam with terrorism turn a blind eye to the mass killing of Muslims, they turn their eyes away from the killing of children in Gaza. Because of that, I think that Israel is a terrorist state, and its actions are acts of terrorism", he said, at a conference of the Islamic Eurasian Council, which was held in Istanbul.
Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, will travel to the Gaza Strip together with several of his peers in member countries of the Arab League.
The relations between Israel and Turkey, which used to be the only ally Israel had in the Muslim world, have deteriorated after Israeli soldiers attacked a Turkish ship which was carrying humanitarian aids, in order to enforce a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, in 2010. Nine Turkish citizens were killed, following the clash between the activists on board the ship and the Israeli troops. Turkey has expelled the Israeli ambassador and has frozen its relations with the Jewish state, after a UN report, presented last year, exonerated it from most of the responsibility for the incident. This month, the Ankaran authorities brought an in absentia lawsuit against four Israeli military commanders.
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Izzat Risheq, assistant to the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, wrote on Facebook that the faction will only accept a truce if Israel stops its aggression and the strategy to assassinate its leaders and will lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip, while Israeli deputy prime minister Moshe Yaalon wrote on Twitter, that the government in Tel Aviv, will not attack, if no missiles or terrorist attacks aimed at Israeli citizens will be launched from the Strip. @
