Israel calls Erdoğan’s comparison of Netanyahu and Hitler ‘deeply offensive’
Here’s more on the Israeli response to comments earlier by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, comparing Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has released a statement on social media in which he condemned Erdoğan’s comments, describing them as “deeply offensive” to Jewish people around the world and to the memory of the millions of Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. Herzog wrote:
I strongly condemn and utterly reject the words of Turkish President Erdogan. In all of human history, the Holocaust stands alone in its horror and enormity, and his words are deeply offensive to every Jew around the world, and to the memory of the millions of Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis.
The command “Never Again” remains an imperative for the State of Israel – the nation state of the Jewish people – which is committed to the safety and protection of every Jew. There is no struggle more just than the war against the terrorist organization Hamas, which brutally and barbarically murdered Jews, as well as Muslims, and those of other faiths and nationalities.
Key events
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has said that the situation on the country’s northern border must change, adding that the time for diplomacy was running out.
“The situation on Israel’s northern border demands change,” Gantz told a press conference, Reuters reported.
The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is running out, if the world and the Lebanese government don’t act in order to prevent the firing on Israel’s northern residents, and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the IDF will do it.
Bethan McKernan
The residents of Sheikh Radwan, a district in the north of Gaza City, are no strangers to warfare.
Born and raised in the neighbourhood, Emad Jameel’s entire life has been defined by fighting. His childhood was dominated by the first and second intifada, or Palestinian uprisings, and since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, leading Israel to impose a near-total air, land and sea blockade, sheikh Radwan has been repeatedly hit by airstrikes both during and outside wartime.
Through it all, however, Jameel, now 31, found solace in friends and family. But he never dreamed of a war like the one Gaza is suffering now, and he never imagined himself homeless, cast adrift from his community and ferrying his children from place to place across the besieged territory in search of ever-elusive safety.
“Why are we subjected to such torture? Is it because we live in a cursed place, or is it because the whole world enjoys watching our suffering?” the clothing shop assistant said by phone.
All I want is to return to my home, even if it is in ruins. I want to live in a tent there and not in unfamiliar places with strangers.
Read the full story here: ‘Miserable in every sense’: displaced families in Gaza face daily ordeal
World Health Organization (WHO) staff also reported witnessing tens of thousands of people fleeing heavy strikes in the Khan Younis and Middle Area in Gaza.
The UN agency said it was “extremely concerned” that this fresh displacement of people will further strain health facilities in southern Gaza.
Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza, said:
This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases, and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid.
WHO chief warns Gaza population faces ‘grave peril’
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has reiterated calls for the international communities to “take urgent steps to alleviate the grave peril” facing the people of Gaza.
In a statement, the WHO said its teams had undertaken “high-risk” missions to deliver supplies to hospitals in northern and southern Gaza, including to al-Shifa hospital and al-Amal Palestine Red Crescent Society on Tuesday.
During their missions, WHO staff witnessed “intense hostilities in their vicinity, high patient loads and overcrowding caused by people displaced by the conflict seeking refuge”, it said.
It said WHO teams reported “finding it impossible to walk inside the hospital without stepping over patients” and displaced people.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said:
The safety of our staff and continuity of operations depends on more food arriving in all of Gaza, immediately. My own colleagues are also being directly and personally affected by the conflict, just like virtually everyone in Gaza. I continue to receive heartbreaking news of the loss of our Gaza staffers’ family members.
An Israeli man has been arrested on suspicion of having desecrated a Muslim cemetery in occupied East Jerusalem by hanging a donkey’s head, Israeli police have said.
In a statement, police said the 35-year-old was arrested after they were alerted that a man had “broken the law and disrupted public order by hanging the head of a donkey” at the cemetery in East Jerusalem’s Old City, AFP reported.
Police said the man was carrying an axe at the time of his arrest, and that another suspect who allegedly had helped was also in custody.
Footage circulating on social media showed the head of a donkey hanging from a fence of the cemetery, which is adjacent to the ancient Muslim Bab al-Rahma cemetery and near the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
The Jerusalem Waqf Islamic affairs described the incident as “a serious desecration of one of the main historic Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem.”
The White House has welcomed the appointment of Sigrid Kaag as the United Nations senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza.
In a statement, the White House’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the appointment of Kaag, the Dutch former deputy prime minister and a Middle East expert, was an “important step as we continue to work with the UN as a critical partner”.
He added that the US is “the largest financial supporter of the humanitarian assistance efforts to support Palestinian civilians who are caught in the middle of the conflict between Israel and Hamas”, adding:
We welcome Ms. Kaag’s leadership and look forward to working together closely to increase the flow of aid into Gaza, and ensure safety and security for the aid delivery and the humanitarian staff providing the life-saving support to those in need.
The announcement of Kaag’s appointment by the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, followed the UN security council’s adoption of a resolution on Friday to appoint a senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza.
Guterres said Kaag, who speaks fluent Arabic and five other languages, “brings a wealth of experience in political, humanitarian and development affairs as well as in diplomacy” to the role.
Israeli forces ‘at very high level of readiness’ as violence on Lebanon border grows, says IDF chief
Israel’s military chief has said his forces are “at a very high level of readiness” amid escalating Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon.
Herzi Halevi, the chief of the general staff of Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in remarks provided by the IDF and reported by the Times of Israel, said:
Our first task is to return residents safely, and that will take time. Today we approved a variety of plans for the future, and we need to be ready for an offensive, if necessary.
He added:
The IDF and within it the Northern Command are at a very high level of readiness. So far, the campaign here has been managed correctly and meticulously, and this is how it should continue. We will not return the residents without security and a sense of security.
On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon reportedly killed a Lebanese-Australian man, his wife, and his brother, who was a member of Hezbollah, according to reports. The strikes followed a series of attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli posts close to the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their communities in northern Israel amid daily Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks, the Times of Israel reported.
Israel calls Erdoğan’s comparison of Netanyahu and Hitler ‘deeply offensive’
Here’s more on the Israeli response to comments earlier by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, comparing Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has released a statement on social media in which he condemned Erdoğan’s comments, describing them as “deeply offensive” to Jewish people around the world and to the memory of the millions of Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. Herzog wrote:
I strongly condemn and utterly reject the words of Turkish President Erdogan. In all of human history, the Holocaust stands alone in its horror and enormity, and his words are deeply offensive to every Jew around the world, and to the memory of the millions of Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis.
The command “Never Again” remains an imperative for the State of Israel – the nation state of the Jewish people – which is committed to the safety and protection of every Jew. There is no struggle more just than the war against the terrorist organization Hamas, which brutally and barbarically murdered Jews, as well as Muslims, and those of other faiths and nationalities.
Israel has continued its bombardment since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, killing at least 21,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.
Drone footage shows the destruction in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. Israel has broadened its offensive against Hamas, conducting house-to-house fighting on the ground.
Here is more on the Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon that reportedly killed a Lebanese-Australian man, his wife, and his brother, who was a member of Hezbollah.
The strike late on Tuesday hit a residential home in the town of Bint Jbeil, Reuters reported. The Lebanese-Australian man, a civilian, was identified by one of his relatives as Ibrahim Bazzi. His wife, a Lebanese national, was also killed.
Hezbollah said one of its fighters, Ali Bazzi, was killed along with his brother and wife. Lebanese media named her as Shourouk Hammoud.
A relative told AFP that Ibrahim Bazzi was an Australian citizen who had flown in for a visit about a week earlier.
Asked about the incident, the Israeli military said one of its jets had struck a Hezbollah military site overnight in Lebanon.
A spokesperson for the Australian foreign ministry said it was aware of the report and was seeking confirmation.
An Israel military reservist has been killed while fighting in Gaza just weeks after he auditioned to be considered for the Eurovision song contest.
Shaul Greenglick, 26, performed on Israel’s Rising Star, a show that picks the country’s Eurovision submission on 3 December while on furlough from his mobilisation in the war in Gaza.
Dressed in army fatigues and lieutenant’s stripes, he sang a popular ballad and was given the green light for the next round in the selection process, Reuters reported. One of the judges told Greenglick:
I’m happy to see you wearing a uniform, because it’s reassuring that someone like you is in uniform. I would be happy to see you representing Israel at Eurovision.
But Greenglick later dropped out of the show reportedly because of his duties in the infantry reserves. He was killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza, Israel, Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Telecommunications and Internet services are being gradually restored in central and southern Gaza, the Palestinian phone service provider, Paltel, has said.
The provider announced yesterday that phone and Internet services had experienced a “complete breakdown” that was “due to the ongoing offensive”.
Netanyahu says Erdoğan ‘is the last to preach morality’ in response to Hitler comparison
There has been a rapid diplomatic response from Israel to comments earlier by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, comparing Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler. (See 13.56 GMT)
In a statement the Israeli prime minister said:
Erdoğan, who is carrying out a genocide of Kurds and holds a world record number of journalists opposed to his rule in jail, is the last to preach morality to us. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, which is fighting and eliminating the most despicable and brutal terror organization in the world, Hamas-Daesh, which committed crimes against humanity and Erdogan praises it and hosts its senior officials.
Citing a video aired on Turkish television that appeared to show Israeli soldiers rounding up half-naked men in a stadium in Gaza, Turkey’s president had said “We watched Israel’s Nazi camps in the stadiums, right? What is this? Remember they used to talk about Hitler in a weird way? How are you different than Hitler? They will make us long for Hitler. Is there anything different in Netanyahu’s actions compared to Hitler’s?”
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has also hit back at Erdoğan’s comments, saying:
I condemn the statements made by Turkish president Erdoğan. Statements that are blatant distortions of reality and a desecration of the Holocaust’s memory. Hamas was the organisation that perpetrated a despicable massacre. Removing the threat of Hamas from the citizens of Israel is an existential necessity and an unparalleled moral imperative.
Haaretz reports that “three aircraft crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon and fell near Mount Dov in northern Israel”. There are no reports of damage or casualties.
Israel and anti-Israeli forces have been repeatedly exchanging fire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.