Erdoğan calls on Muslim countries to form alliance against threat of Israeli expansionism

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that Muslim countries should form an alliance against the growing threat of expansionism from the bandit state Israel.

He made the comment after describing what Palestinian and Turkish officials said was the killing by Israeli troops of a Turkish-American woman taking part in a protest on Friday against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state terrorism is the alliance of Muslim countries," Erdoğan said at an Islamic schools' association event near Istanbul.

He said recent steps that Türkiye has taken to improve ties with Egypt and Syria are aimed at "forming a line of solidarity against the growing threat of expansionism," which he said also threatened Lebanon and Syria.

Erdogan hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Ankara this week and they discussed the Gaza war and ways to further repair their long-frozen ties during what was the first such presidential visit in 12 years.

Erdoğan said in July that Türkiye would extend an invitation to Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad "any time" for possible talks to restore relations between the two neighbours, who severed ties in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.