Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Wednesday engaged in a verbal back-and-forth, attacking one another’s foreign policies on the matters of Gaza, Iran, and Cyprus.

The spat began with Erdogan’s speech to MPs from his AK Party, in which he said that in Gaza, “Israel is raining bullets and bombs on the innocent who have gathered at aid distribution points”, and is “shooting and vilely killing hundreds of people who are suffering from hunger”.

“Believe me, the most horrific photographs and videos of the second world war look very, very innocent next to the images coming from Gaza … [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has long surpassed the cruel Hitler in the crime of genocide,” he said.

He added, “we hope that their fate will not be the same”, and that “hopefully, sooner or later, he will appear before an international independent court, face all he has done, and account for the murders and the massacres he has committed in this world”.

Moving onto the matter of Iran, he said, “as if all this were not enough, Israel has expanded its area of banditry by attacking some targets in Iran and organising assassinations inside Iran”.

“It is a completely natural, legitimate, and legal right for Iran to defend itself against Israel’s banditry and this state terrorism,” he said.

Sa’ar then responded in a social media post, writing that “the Sultan in his own eyes, in yet another inflammatory speech, continues to incite against Israel and the Israeli prime minister”.

“Erdogan, who has set a record in suppressing the freedoms and rights of his citizens, as well as his country’s opposition, dares to preach to others,” he added.

“It is particularly ironic that someone who does not hide his imperialist ambitions, someone who invaded northern Syria and illegally holds northern Cyprus, claims to speak in the name of morality and international law. A little self-awareness could be helpful.”

Turkey’s foreign ministry then responded to Sa’ar’s post, writing that “the social media post made by the Israeli foreign minister consists of baseless slander and vile lies against our country and our president”.

“The fact that Israeli officials have to focus so much on our president’s statements confirms the accuracy of what was said. The person responsible for Netanyahu’s name being mentioned along with people who committed genocide in history is himself,” it added.

It went on to say that “Netanyahu and his accomplices will have to be held accountable”, and that “as our president said, we hope that Netanyahu and his collaborators will be given a fair trial”.