Israel not acting ‘like a state’ in Gaza

Israel is not conducting itself "like a state" in the Gaza Strip, Turkey's president said yesterday, as Israel pounded the territory after a Hamas onslaught.

"Israel should not forget that if it acts more like an organisation rather than a state, it'll finish by being treated as such," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, attacking "shameful methods" of the Israeli army in the densely-populated Gaza Strip.

"Bombing civilian sites, killing civilians, blocking humanitarian aid and trying to present these as achievements are the acts of an organisation and not a state," he said.

Erdogan usually uses the word "organisation" when he refers to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies.

"We think that a war should have an ethic and that both parties should respect it. Unfortunately, this principle is gravely violated in Israel and in Gaza," he said.

Erdogan also denounced the "murders of civilians on Israeli territory" and "the blind massacre of innocents in a Gaza subjected to constant bombardment".