Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has again sharply criticized Israel over its treatment of Palestinians, accusing the country of “state terror” at the UN General Debate in New York.
“Gaza is the most inhumane and shameful concentration camp of our time,” Erdoğan said on Tuesday, blaming Israel for the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians. He called on the international community to exert more pressure on Israel.
The Turkish president has repeatedly lambasted Israel and in particular Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Relations between the two countries have been strained for years and deteriorated further because of the Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. A ceasefire has officially been in place since October 2025, but deadly violence there continues. Erdoğan’s government maintains ties with Hamas.
The Israeli delegation at the UN left the hall during Erdoğan’s speech in protest, according to a spokesman for Israeli ambassador Danny Danon.
In a separate speech, Jordan’s King Abdullah II also accused Israel of serious violations of international law in its conflict with the Palestinians, saying Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip were “an attempt to extinguish Palestinian life and impose a new reality on the ground.”
Gaza represents “one of the world’s longest occupations,” Abdullah said, raising the question: “If international law can be ignored for decades, what exactly is that law worth?”
The king also said there had been a fundamental shift in Israel’s approach in the West Bank.
“What was once a creeping process has exploded into something far more aggressive,” he said. Abdullah II spoke of “forced displacement” in the West Bank by Israel, which he said constituted a war crime.
The international community is merely “managing” the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians rather than addressing it, he said.
“We have tools: sanctions, asset freezes, embargoes, diplomatic isolation, and we have used them elsewhere. But with Israel, resolutions end where they began – on paper,” the king said.
Jordan continues to call for a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
A large proportion of Jordan’s population has Palestinian roots, including Queen Rania. Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, becoming the second Arab country after Egypt to formally recognize Israel.