Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was no different from Adolf Hitler and compared Israel’s attacks on Gaza to the Nazis’ treatment of the Jewish people, Reuters reported.

Turkey, a NATO member that supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has criticized Israel’s air and ground attacks on Gaza, saying Israel is a “terrorist state” and its leaders should be tried in international courts.

Erdogan said Turkey would welcome scientists and academics persecuted for their views on the Gaza conflict, adding that Western countries that support Israel are complicit in what he called war crimes.

Erdogan says Netanyahu can eclipse Hitler

“They used to speak badly about Hitler. How are you different from Hitler? They will make us miss Hitler. Is that what makes Netanyahu inferior to what Hitler did? It’s not true,” Erdogan said.

“He is richer than Hitler, he gets support from the West. All kinds of support comes from the United States. And what did they do with all this support? They killed more than 20,000 Gazans,” he said.

There was no comment from Israel.

Despite criticism, Turkey maintains trade ties with Israel, drawing backlash from opposition parties and Iran. Ankara says trade with Israel has plummeted since October 7, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a deadly cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people, prompting Israel to launch a war against Hamas.

Unlike its Western allies and some Arab countries, Turkey does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

read:

• Erdogan rejects Washington’s calls for Turkey to cut ties with Hamas
• “He is a war criminal.” Erdogan lashed out at Netanyahu, whom he called the “butcher of Gaza”