ISTANBUL : Muslim nation condemned Israel and the inauguration of the American embassy in contested Jerusalem as a “provocation and hostility against” the Islamic world, while Turkey’s president called for action, including a peacekeeping force.
A final communique from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Istanbul “reaffirmed the centrality of the Palestinian cause” after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the rotating term president of the OIC, called an extraordinary summit.
The call came on the heels of a week that has seen Turkey take a leading role in condemning Israeli actions in Gaza — Monday’s killing of 59 Palestinians and wounding of hundreds of others was the deadliest day of cross-border violence in Gaza since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. As part of its efforts, the Turkish government organized a massive rally and the OIC summit, in a show of solidarity.
Speaking at the closing of the OIC late Friday, Erdogan said the international community “must stop watching the massacres from the bleachers” as Palestinian youth are killed by “Israeli terror,” proposing an international peacekeeping force.
