Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Europe has forgotten the lessons of the Second World War and the Holocaust, as he criticized European nations for not helping Israel and the US fight Iran.
Many European countries, including the UK, France, and Germany, have rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed to “enemy ships” following the US-Israeli attack on February 28.
Speaking on Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, Netanyahu described Europeans as ungrateful and argued that by waging war on Iran, the US and Israel were “defending Europe.”
“Europe, which has forgotten so much since the Holocaust, can learn many things from us, primarily the sharp distinction between good and evil, which, in the moment of truth, requires us to go to war for the sake of good, for the sake of life,” the Israeli prime minister said.
“Europe, which vowed after World War II to defend the good, is infested today with a deep moral weakness. Europe is losing control over its identity, its values, and its commitment to protect civilization from barbarism,” he added.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has outstanding warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Gaza. The UK and all of the EU countries except Hungary are signatories of the ICC under the Rome Statute, and if the Israeli prime minister were to visit, they would be obliged to arrest him.
Iran has condemned the war as unprovoked aggression and has vowed to defend its “sovereign right” to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
On Sunday, Trump ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after Pakistani-mediated US-Iran talks failed to produce a peace deal.
A gunman has opened fire at a secondary school in the city of Kahramanmaras in south-eastern Türkiye, a local governor has said. It is the second such incident in the country in as many days. An attack on an educational institution in Siverek on Tuesday left 17 wounded.
The second school shooting, which took place in the Onikisubat (12 February) District of Kahramanmaras, resulted in deaths and injuries, Governor Mukerrem Unluer said on Wednesday.
He didn’t name the exact figures, but media reports spoke of at least four people being killed and 20 others wounded.
Unluer said later that according to preliminary data, the attacker was an eighth grade student from the same school. He could have obtained the firearms from his father, who is a former police officer, he said.
According to CNN Turk, the assailant had five pistols on him. He committed suicide after carrying out the shooting.
Videos from the scene captured students fleeing the school en mass during the attack, with some jumping out of second floor windows.
Footage also showed at least one dead body being placed in an ambulance.
