ANKARA

The Speaker of the Turkish Parliament Mustafa Sentop on Sunday described the UN's call to Israel and Palestine to return to negotiations as positive, but insufficient.

“While the UN's call for an end to the conflict between Israel and Palestine and to return to negotiations for a two-state solution is positive, it is not a sufficient step,” he said in a post on Twitter.

His remarks came after the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in an address at the UN Security Council (UNSC), called on the two sides to end the “senseless cycle of bloodshed, terror and destruction” and return to negotiations for a two-state solution of the conflict.

“The UN should immediately put Israel's civilian massacres, state terror, and crimes against humanity on its agenda,” Sentop urged.

Later in the day, he also voiced disappointment at the world's silence in the face of Israel's state terror, crimes against humanity, and the killing of infants and children.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip on Sunday rose to 197, including 58 children and 34 women, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups there vowed to retaliate against Israeli assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah if they were not halted.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.