The United Nations was right to speak out against an Israeli attack near a UN-run school in Gaza, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
Palestinian officials said at least 10 people died in the attack on Sunday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the attack “a moral outrage and a criminal act”.
Mr Cameron would not say if he agreed with those words. He thought it was “an appalling loss of life”, adding that civilians must not be targeted.
He told BBC Breakfast there had to to be an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, adding that the “fastest way to stop this conflict” would be if Hamas rocket attacks on Israel stopped.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of deliberately killing Palestinian mothers and warned that the it would “drown in the blood it sheds.”
He was speaking to thousands of supporters during a rally in Istanbul ahead of a 10 August election.
“Just like Hitler, who sought to establish a race free of all faults, Israel is chasing after the same target,” Mr Erdogan said, according to Reuters.
They kill women so that they will not give birth to Palestinians; they kill babies so that they won’t grow up; they kill men so they can’t defend their country … They will drown in the blood they shed.”
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius’ statement was one of the strongest given by a western European nation.
He said: “How many more deaths will it take to stop what must be called the carnage in Gaza?,” according to English-language French outlet The Local.
“The tradition of friendship between Israel and France is an old one and Israel’s right to security is total, but this right does not justify the killing of children and the slaughter of civilians.
That is why we support and demand the establishment of a real ceasefire as proposed by Egypt and why we are ready, as French and Europeans, to contribute to it in a concrete way.
“It is also why a political solution is essential… and should in my opinion be imposed by the international community.”
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the assault “a moral outrage and a criminal act” after the victims had taken shelter in the school after taking instructions from the military to leave their homes. He also called on those responsible to be brought to account.
It was the seventh time a UN shelter has been struck since fighting began in the beginning of July.