Israeli PM Netanyahu no different from Hitler

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

Speaking at an event in Ankara, Erdogan also repeated his criticism of Western support for Israel, adding that Turkey was ready to welcome academics and scientists who faced persecution due to their views on the conflict in Gaza.

Erdogan stressed that academics in the US and elsewhere are being fired or censured for standing up for Palestinians, as well as facing pressure and threats, just as those who stood up for the Jewish people decades ago.

The reported deaths of almost 21,000 Palestinians and Gaza's spiralling humanitarian crisis have amplified calls for an end to the hostilities.

Gaza's 2.4 million people have been suffering severe shortages of water, food, fuel and medicines, with only limited aid entering the territory.

An estimated 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced, according to the UN.

Amid the Gaza war, violence has also flared across the Israel-occupied West Bank, with more than 300 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers, according to the territory's health ministry.

An Israeli operation in a refugee camp in the north of the West Bank left six people dead early Wednesday, it said.