Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul that his country is preparing to declare Israel a "war criminal" over its actions in Gaza.
During his address to hundreds of thousands of people who joined the rally, Erdogan also held Western countries responsible for the killings in Gaza and for failing to stop Israel's attacks.
"Israel, we will declare it a war criminal in front of the world," Erdogan said. "We are making preparations and we will declare Israel to the world as a war criminal."
Erdogan, whose government recently restored diplomatic relations with Israel, has criticized the country.
Earlier in the week, Erdogan said the militant group Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a liberation group fighting for its lands and people.
After Erdogan's statements, Israel said it is withdrawing diplomatic staff from Turkey.
"Given the statements coming from Turkey, I have ordered the return of diplomatic representatives so that we can reassess relations between Israel and Turkey," Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a post on X earlier. it was known as Twitter.
Since Friday night, Israel has launched a ground operation in Gaza. On October 28, the Israeli military said it was expanding the operation and that infantry and tanks were being supported by "massive air and naval strikes".
Israel has also called on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to leave the north of the territory for the south.
The Israeli military said it is bombing Hamas' network of tunnels and underground bunkers in Gaza, in the northern part of the territory.
Hamas launched coordinated attacks on southern Israel on October 7, killing over 1,400 people and taking over 200 hostages.
Meanwhile, as a result of revenge attacks, over 7,700 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, over 110 Palestinians have been killed during violence and during Israeli raids./REL