Turkey's president calls war in Gaza 'ecocide' at UN climate summit

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called for the world to recognize the environmental impacts of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and asked the Israeli government to grant more aid access to the Palestinian territory. Erdogan was speaking at the U.N. climate summit, known as COP31, in Antalya, Turkey. “What has taken place in Gaza is not only a genocide, but it is also an ecocide,” Erdogan said to applause by world leaders and other climate envoys. A U.N.-backed panel of independent experts concluded last year that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel vehemently denies the allegations and has accused the panel of antisemitism. “Centuries old olive trees have been cut down. The soil and water have been polluted in Gaza, and cities in Gaza have been turned into enormous piles of rubble,” Erdogan said. “With Gaza’s destroyed infrastructure, compounded by torrential rain and by flooding, tens of thousands of tents and shelters have been inundated.” Israel's Foreign Ministry responded in a post on X, accusing Erdogan of “using an international forum to pu