Israel will not stop in Gaza, warns Turkish premier 

Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has said that Israel will not stop in Gaza and will move to occupy other territories should it continue its operations. 

The comments by the Turkish premier came on Saturday following the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish-American activist, at the hands of Israeli forces a day earlier. 

Erdogan warned that Israel will not stop in Gaza, and if it continues its current actions, it will move on to occupy Ramallah and then set its sights on other regions. 

"Lebanon and Syria will be next... They will covet our homeland territories between the Tigris and the Euphrates," he added. 

Ramallah is a Palestinian city located in the central West Bank of Israel 10 miles north of Jerusalem. It serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority. 

Erdogan said that now Israel aims to commit genocide in both the West Bank and Gaza and to occupy these areas as well, Turkiye’s state run Andalou Agency reported.  

“They (Israel) heinously murdered our young child, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. To date, they have killed over 40,000 innocent civilians, including 17,000 children,” Erdogan said. 

Eygi was shot dead by an Israeli snipper while participating in a protest against settlement expansion in the town of Beita, near Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Standing against Israel's state terrorism is an Islamic duty, and also a national issue, the president said.

Erdogan said that both within Türkiye and in some Islamic countries, there is a misconception that this issue is distant from them, which he believes is a serious mistake.

"All Islamic countries should adopt a unified stance against the uncertain extent of the Israeli occupation," he added. 

A total of 186,000 or more deaths could be attributable to the Gaza conflict, a study published in medical journal Lancet has revealed. 

Armed conflicts have indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence and even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years, the study added.

Since the October attack last year until June 19, 2024, a total of 37,396 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza health ministry. 

Note: Story updated on November 5, 2024