ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Monday warned that Israel’s attacks on Lebanon threatened to push the Middle East deeper into “chaos.”
Israeli airstrikes killed 356 people, including 24 children, in Lebanon on Monday, the Lebanese health minister said, in the deadliest cross-border escalation since war erupted in Gaza on October 7.
“Israel’s attacks on Lebanon mark a new phase in its efforts to drag the entire region into chaos,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, after Israeli raids on strongholds of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in southern and eastern Lebanon.
An outspoken critic of Israel’s offensive in response to the attack by Hamas militants that sparked the war, Turkiye urged the international community to intervene.
“It is imperative that all institutions responsible for maintaining international peace and security, especially the United Nations Security Council, as well as the international community, take the necessary measures without delay,” the foreign ministry said.
“The countries that unconditionally support Israel are helping (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu shed blood for his political interests,” it said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is due to address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, is expected to focus on the Gaza war.
On Monday, Erdogan told International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan during a meeting in New York that “Israel must be held accountable for its crimes,” the Turkish leader’s office said.
Khan in May requested the court issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Erdogan told Khan that Israel was “committing a genocide in Gaza” and that it was “recklessly making plans to carry out new massacres, wrongfully thinking that there was no power to stop them.”
He also said “it is extremely important that the genocide case against Israel at the ICC must be concluded” and that perpetrators must receive necessary punishment, according to his office.