President Erdogan Does Not Rule Out Turkey's Possibility Of Entering Israel To Help Palestine

JAKARTA - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Turkey did not rule out entering Israel to help Palestine, saying there was no reason to say it could not be done.

He then said it was the same as what was done in Libya, An Nagorno-Karabakh, although the intervention was not explained what he meant.

"We have to be so strong that Israel can't do ridiculous things to Palestine. Just as we enter Karabakh, just as we enter Libya, we will probably do the same to them," President Erdogan said in a meeting with the ruling AK Party in his hometown, Rize.

"There is no reason why we can't do this. We have to be strong so we can take these steps," President Erdogan added in a speech broadcast on television.

Turkish President Erdogan is known to be one of the harsh critics of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip.

Separately, representatives of the AK Party did not respond to phone calls asking for further details on President Erdogan's comments.

President Erdogan's words appear to refer to Turkey's past actions. In 2020, Turkey sent military personnel to Libya to support the UN-recognized Government of the Libya National Agreement.

Libya's Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, who heads the National Unity Government in Tripoli, is backed by Turkey.

On the other hand, Turkey denied the direct role in Azerbaijan's military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, but said last year that it used all means', including military training and modernization, to support its close allies.

Separately, Gaza's medical sources announced on Sunday that Israeli forces killed at least 66 Palestinians and injured 241 others in the past 24 hours, quoted from WAFA.

Meanwhile, local health authorities confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli attack since October 7 had risen to 39,324, while 90,830 others were injured. The majority of victims were women and children.