The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has heavily criticized Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his recent comments which targeted Turkey’s ongoing military operation in the northwestern Syrian region of Afrin.

His remarks on Sunday were to counter Netanyahu’s earlier comments which rejected Ankara’s “moral lessons” over the Israeli army’s killing of Palestinian protesters in Gaza and labeling Erdogan as someone who “bombs Kurdish villagers”.

“He says our soldiers are oppressing people in Afrin. Netanyahu, you are very weak, very poor,” Erdogan told the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) congress in the southern Adana province of Turkey.

Netanyahu praised Israeli army after it killed many Palestinians

“We are dealing with terrorists, but you are not. Because you are a terror state,” Erdogan added.

Terming the Israeli prime minister “an occupier” in Palestine, Erdogan said: “You are also a terrorist. History is recording what you have done to all those oppressed Palestinians … We are not guilty of any act of occupation.”

Not less than 17 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,500 persons were wounded on Friday when Israeli forces opened fire on “Land Day” protesters near the Gaza Strip’s eastern border.

Land Day is an event is in the remembrance of six Palestinian citizens of Israel who were shot dead by Israeli forces after protesting the government’s confiscation of large swaths of Palestinian land on March 30, 1976.

On Saturday, Erdogan “strongly” condemned “the Israeli government over its inhumane attack” in Gaza Strip.

Friday’s rallies were also the start of a six-week demonstration that culminates on May 15, the day the Palestinians call “Nakba,” or the Catastrophe, when Israel was officially declared a state 70 years ago and more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes.

The protesters are demanding that Palestinian refugees be allowed the right of return to towns and villages which their families fled from, or were driven out of, in 1948.

Turkey along with its ally, Free Syrian Army (FSA launched an air-and-ground operation into Afrin last month, to vanquish the US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters near its border.

Turkey is waging a full-blown war against the Kurdish militant group in Syria. It calls it a terrorist organization with links to PKK. It started its war on January 2018 with the code name ‘Operation Olive Branch’ in the Afrin district of and the Tell Rifaat Subdistrict. Alongside the ongoing tuff, Ankara also claims to be fighting ISIL despite the fact that it does not have any existence in the region.

The President of Turkey also said that after the operation Afrin, its military will move further towards Manbij. Manbij was captured by US-backed forces from ISIL back in 2016. If successful, the area will be under the control of Turkey and it has already declared plans to bring back Syrian refugees from his country to reside in the region.

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