Gaza cannot tolerate the international community’s wait-and-see policy because civilians have been dying at every moment in Israel’s ongoing attacks, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said yesterday, calling on the international community to assume a sense of urgency in getting the sides to agree to an immediate cease-fire and noting that Turkey would not shy away from taking responsibility in an international monitoring mechanism once a cease-fire is put in place.

As of Monday, Israeli forces pounded houses, mosques and tunnels in the Gaza Strip from the air, land and sea, killing at least seven children and six other civilians, as they consolidated a bruising land offensive against Palestinian fighters. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the campaign would continue until Israel achieved its objective: “peace and tranquility” for residents of southern Israel, who continue to be bombarded by Palestinian rocket and mortar fire.

Global public opinion has been outraged by mounting Palestinian casualties. Gazan health officials reported 524 dead and nearly 2,000 wounded since Israel embarked upon its military campaign against Gaza’s government on Dec. 27. At least 200 civilians were among the dead.

Thirteen civilians died in the various attacks across Gaza on Monday morning, said Gazan health official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain. Civilian casualties spiked since Israel launched the ground offensive Saturday, following a week of punishing air strikes. Since the ground operation began 80 Palestinians were killed, of which at least 70 were civilians, Hassanain said.

Labeling the situation in Gaza “a humanitarian tragedy,” Babacan said yesterday it was a humanitarian responsibility for Turkey and the international community to make an effort to get the sides to agree to an immediate cease-fire without losing time.

The minister was speaking at a joint press conference following talks with his visiting Syrian counterpart, Walid al-Moallem.

In a swift reaction to Israel's ground incursion into Gaza, the Turkish capital harshly condemned Israel's move, which it said was "unacceptable," while calling on the UN Security Council to take immediate steps to bring the situation under control.

Turkey had been mediating indirect peace talks between long time enemies Syria and Israel. The negotiations were called off over the offensive. During his one-day trip to Ankara, al-Moallem also had talks with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

"A cease-fire should be implemented immediately. Elements of the cease-fire should be outlined in a form which is acceptable to the parties involved. Everyone's fundamental priority should be to end this humanitarian tragedy. The daily killings of civilians, women and children cannot be justified," Babacan said.

Asked to elaborate on how Turkey will contribute to maintaining any agreed upon cease-fire, Babacan said many ideas have been proposed, including those that involve Turkey and Syria. "It should be a permanent cease-fire. The sustainability of an eventual resolution should be guaranteed by the international community and, if suggested, it should be discussed if sustaining it is possible through an international monitoring group. If Turkey is invited to participate in this group, it will not avoid doing what it has to," he said.

Gül hosted Babacan and senior diplomats from the ministry on Sunday to discuss ways of how to maintain calm in Gaza. Ankara believes that once a cease-fire is in place, Israel should lift its embargo on Gaza while also opening all crossings to let in humanitarian assistance destined for residents of the Gaza Strip. Turkey asserts that an international force should be put in charge following this process, defining this force as an international force which will assume "monitoring" duty under the auspices of the UN, but not as "a peace force." According to Ankara, these steps should be followed by efforts for national reconciliation between Fatah, currently heading the government in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas as well as developing Palestine.

"What matters is the fact that at every hour of every day that we talk here, people are dying. Nothing is more precious than a child's life. That is why the international community should move immediately. A wait-and-see approach is wrong. It is a must for relevant countries to take action just as they were mobilized when the issue was Georgia," Babacan said, in an apparent reference to the international community's solidarity with Georgia when Russia invaded US-allied Georgia in August after the Georgian army tried to take control of South Ossetia, a Russian-backed breakaway region.

Extending support to Turkey's efforts in a bid to maintain calm in the region, al-Moallem said Israel's moves did not comply with any international agreements. He added that Syria wants to join efforts with Turkey, stressing that the two neighbors fully agree on the issue. We have to mobilize international organizations as well as the international judicial system, he said, also suggesting that Israel should be tried for its killing of civilians.

Todayszaman