Turkey providing documents for genocide hearings against Israel: Erdogan

Turkey is providing documents for a case brought by South Africa against Israel at the U.N.'s top court on a charge of committing genocide against Palestinian civilians, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Erdogan said that Turkey would continue to provide documents, mostly visuals, on Israel's attacks on Gaza.

"I believe Israel will be convicted there. We believe in the justice of the International Court of Justice", Erdogan said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz described Erdogan as the president of "a country with the Armenian genocide in its past", and that he was targeting Israel with "unfounded claims".

South Africa told the court on Thursday that Israel's offensive aimed to bring about "the destruction of the population" of Gaza. It said Israel's political and military leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were among "the genocidal inciters".

Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes in a strip that has been in large part laid waste, where the health system has largely collapsed, and the United Nations says restrictions on food and medical aid deliveries have left thousands hungry and at risk of disease.

"This is a test for humanity," said Bassam Zakarneh, a member of the Revolutionary Council of the Fatah movement that dominates the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self rule in the West Bank.

The ICJ case comes after two years of escalating violence in the West Bank, where regular army raids have killed hundreds of Palestinians, including both armed fighters and uninvolved civilians. Palestinians militants have also killed dozens of Israelis.

(Reuters)