ANKARA 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday criticized the UN and Western countries for “just watching the humanitarian crimes” committed by Israel in Gaza for the last 140 days. 

“So much so that the UN Security Council does not and cannot call for an immediate cease-fire,” Erdogan decried, speaking at a meeting of the Justice and Development (AK) Party in Türkiye’s northwestern province of Sakarya.

“Neither Western powers nor the UN Security Council have made a useful effort to prevent Israeli violence,” he stressed.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

For the first time since its creation in 1948, Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the United Nations, over its Gaza war.

An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.