Erdogan urges Israel and Hamas to cease fire

Speaking at the Turkey-Egypt Business Forum in Cairo on Sunday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged both Israeli and Gazan authorities to declare a cease-fire within 24 hours, saying, "We want justice. We suggest and we want for the fire to be halted simultaneously." Stating that Israel also attacked Gaza in 2008 prior to elections and it is doing the same thing again, Erdogan said, "I am calling on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. We are not in 2008. We are in 2012 and conditions are different than 2008. Make your calculations correctly." Noting that Israel was so cruel that it could kill children, Erdogan said that Israel did the same thing to Turkey, and killed nine Turkish citizens aboard Mavi Marmara ship which was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on international waters. "As I had told Israeli president before in Davos, Israel knows how to kill children and how to use unproportional force very well," adding that all embargoes in the region should be lifted in order to bring prosperity to the region. Erdogan stressed that he had discussed with Western leaders that Turkey and countries Hamas considers friendly to it could talk to the authorities in Gaza, while the Western countries negotiate with Israel to reach a cease-fire.