Israel’s Netanyahu no different from Hitler, says Erdogan

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said that Israel’s Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu was no different from Adolf Hitler and likened Israel’s attacks on Gaza to the treatment of Jewish people by the Nazis.

NATO member Turkey, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has criticised Israel’s air and ground assault on Gaza, called it a “terror state” and said its leaders must be tried in international courts.

Sharpening his rhetoric, Erdogan said Turkiye would welcome academics and scientists facing persecution for their views on the conflict in Gaza, adding Western countries supporting Israel were complicit in what he called war crimes.

“They used to speak ill of Hitler. What difference do you have from Hitler? They are going to make us miss Hitler. Is what this Netanyahu is doing any less than what Hitler did? It is not,” Erdogan said.

“He is richer than Hitler, he gets the support from the West. All sorts of support come from the United States. And what did they do with all this support? They killed more than 20,000 Gazans,” he said.

The Turkish leader has lashed out repeatedly at Israel for the scale of death and destruction caused by its response to Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 cross-border attack.

He has branded Israel a “terrorist state”, Netanyahu “the butcher of Gaza” while calling Hamas “a liberation group”.

Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,140 people and also took around 250 hostages.

Israel launched a relentless bombardment and a ground invasion in which at least 21,110 people have been killed, according to the latest toll issued by Gaza’s health ministry.

Most of the dead are women and children, it said, with more than 55,000 people wounded.