Turkish PM asks Muslims to unite over Palestinian cause

By Baris Gundogan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Tuesday called on the world’s more than 1.5 billion Muslims to “band together” over the Palestinian cause after more than 60 people were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

“There has never been an incident when the UN was so helpless,” Yildirim told reporters in the capital Ankara, referring to the recent violence in Gaza.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 62 Palestinian demonstrators have been martyred by cross-border Israeli gunfire in one of the deadliest single-day massacres in the country's history.

Earlier, Yildirim invited his counterparts from five countries to join an emergency summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the killings of Palestinians at the Gaza border.

Thousands of Palestinians gathered on the Gaza Strip’s eastern border Monday to take part in mass rallies to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment -- an event Palestinians refer to as the "Nakba" or "the Catastrophe" and to protest the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Since the border rallies began on March 30, more than 100 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed by cross-border Israeli gunfire, according to the Health Ministry.

Last week, the Israeli government said the ongoing border protests constituted a “state of war” in which international humanitarian law did not apply.