Turkish President Erdogan urges global action to protect children of Gaza

On International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the global community to protect the "honour and dignity, as well as the children of Gaza.”

"I invite the United Nations, which declared this special day, to take a concrete step against the massacre of innocent children in Gaza by bombs for months, and to take action with the understanding that the world is bigger than five," he said on Tuesday, referring to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council who have veto power.

"On the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, I remember with sadness the more than 15,000 children who have been barbarically murdered in Gaza since October 7," he said.

Erdogan also underlined that Türkiye "will continue to extend its hand" to oppressed people around the world, "especially in Gaza."

"Wherever children are being killed, wherever they are subjected to hunger and poverty, we will continue to extend our hand and work hard with the belief that a more just world is possible," Erdogan added.

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Palestine's Gaza since an attack by Hamas last October 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. More than 36,500 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and nearly 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge.