Turkey’s Erdogan says Gazans must not die for ‘hunk of bread’

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned that it would be unacceptable for Palestinians to die from the want of a “hunk of bread or a mouthful of water”.

Erdogan’s warning, made during a speech in Istanbul, came amid a mounting chorus of international criticism of Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza, which has triggered a humanitarian crisis.

“No one endowed with a minimum of human dignity can accept this cruelty, in which dozens of innocent people die every day because they cannot find a hunk of bread or a mouthful of water,” he said.

Erdogan is a frequent critic of Israel but his declaration came as Israel faced several demands from United Nations agencies and international capitals to protect civilian lives and to allow aid into Gaza.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Israeli forces “must stop killing people” at food distribution points, and UN rights chief Volker Turk warned Israel that it was possibly violating international law.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said that Israeli strikes had killed 15 people in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, after the World Health Organization said that troops had invaded its staff residence.