Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the recognition of a Palestinian state in his address.

"Let everyone understand and accept the following," Erdogan said. "Attempts to strangle the state of Palestine will fail. God willing, we shall see those good days when an independent state of Palestine — based on the 1967 borders, with territorial integrity and with East Jerusalem as its capital — will be established."

Erdogan told the assembly that more than 1,500 people had been killed in Gaza even since the shaky ceasefire agreement was reached with Turkish help last year.

"Although the Palestinian resistance movement has agreed to move to the second stage of the peace plan," Erdogan said of the tiered approach long stuck on step 1, "the Israeli government refuses to stop the occupation."

Israel denies that it has blocked progress with the peace plan and has accused Hamas of not meeting security requirements.

Erdogan also said the West Bank was experiencing what he regarded as escalating "settler violence and terror."

Erdogan said he planned to "speak from the heart" and "without reservation," saying it was a "humanitarian issue" and a matter of conscience for everyone assembled.

"We are faced with a genocidal mindset that cannot get enough of killing," he asserted. "We are faced with an extremely serious situation. No one with a sense of humanity, mercy or compassion, no one guided by justice and conscience, can possibly remain indifferent to this picture."

Erdogan, the longstanding leader of NATO's only majority Muslim member, is known as a frequently staunch critic of Israel and its government.

The two countries are also at odds over the post-civil war situation in their mutual neighbor Syria.

Last month, Turkey announced it had sought an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged genocide, with Netanyahu's office responding that the Israeli prime minister was "unimpressed by Turkey's hypocrisy."