Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called Israel a "terror state", stepping up his condemnation of the spiralling civilian toll of its war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Erdogan's latest -- and one of the most heated -- verbal attacks against Israel came two days before he plans to make a sensitive visit to Germany for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Turkish leader took a more nuanced line immediately after Hamas's October 7 cross-border attacks, in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and around 240 people taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
But he stepped up the rhetoric as the scale of Israel's military response grew.
Health officials in the Hamas-run territory say more than 11,300 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza.
"I say clearly that Israel is a terror state," Erdogan told members of his Islamic-rooted ruling party in parliament.
"While we curse the Israeli administration, we do not forget those who openly support these massacres and those who go out of their way to legitimise them," he said, pointing to the United States and other Western supporters of Israel.
He called the war Gaza a conflict "between the cross and the crescent", suggesting that Christian, Western supporters of Israel were fighting the Muslim world.
"They are trying to exonerate the murderers," he said, referring to the West.
"We are faced with a genocide," Erdogan added, repeating a term has used on several occasions.
Turkey this month recalled its ambassador to Israel and broke off official contacts with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, suspending recent attempts by the sides to repair their rocky relations.
Israel has also said it was "re-evaluating" relations with Ankara, after calling back its diplomatic staff from Turkey and other regional countries as a security precaution.
Erdogan's heated rhetoric has piled pressure in Germany on Scholz, who has been forced to defend his decision to receive the Turkish leader.
Scholz this week called Erdogan's earlier accusation of fascism against Israel "absurd", calling Israel "a democracy" and "a country that is bound to human rights and international law".
Defending the planned visit, which will be Erdogan's first to Germany since 2020, Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said Germany "always had difficult partners whom we have to deal with".
Gaza cancer patients being transferred to Turkey: Ankara
More than two dozen Palestinian cancer patients, many of them children, who have crossed from Gaza into Egypt will be brought for treatment to Turkey, Turkey's health minister said Wednesday.
Turkey has sent a ship loaded with material for field hospitals, ambulances and generators to Egypt to treat civilians who have been able to flee Israel's military operation against Hamas militants in the enclave.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to its attacks on October 7, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 240 hostages taken to Gaza.
The Hamas-run territory's health ministry says Israel's ensuing aerial bombardment and ground offensive have killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians and including thousands of children.
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 26 Palestinian cancer patients had entered Egypt through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday.
"We plan to take these 26 patients to Turkey today," he said in televised remarks from the El Arish airport in Egypt.
He said the group will be flown to Turkey "with 13 companions", without specifying whether these were doctors or family members.
Koca added that Turkey was waiting for Egypt's permission to open its first field hospital at the Rafah crossing.
"I hope that in the near future -- our efforts are going in this direction -- we will be able to establish a field hospital in Gaza, in the area near the Rafah gate," he said.
Turkey, a mostly Muslim but officially secular nation, has long championed the Palestinian cause and, more recently, has stepped up its verbal attacks against Israel for the soaring civilian toll of its military operation.
Speaking before members of his Islamic-rooted ruling party, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called Israel "a terror state" that was committing "genocide".