Turkey on Tuesday asked the Israeli ambassador to leave the country following the killing of Palestinian protestors by Israeli soldiers along the Gaza border, reported Ankara-based Anadolu Agency. An unidentified diplomatic official said the foreign ministry summoned Ambassador Eitan Naeh and told him it would be “appropriate” for him to return to his country “for a while”.
On Monday, Turkey recalled ambassadors from Tel Aviv in Israel and Washington, DC in the United States following the clashes over the relocating of the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, reported Al Jazeera. Nearly 60 Palestinians were killed in the clashes. The envoys will return to Turkey for “consultations”, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told Al Jazeera on Monday.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the killings in Gaza as genocide. “Israel is wreaking state terror,” he said in London, according to The Times of Israel. “Israel is a terror state. I condemn this humanitarian drama, the genocide, from whichever side it comes, Israel or America.”
Israel’s Prime Minister reacted to Erdogan’s comment, calling him “Hamas’s biggest supporters”.
Turkey has also called for an emergency summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and a United Nations General Assembly meeting over Israel’s use of force, Bozdag added. Turkey has declared a three-day holiday in solidarity with Palestine.
Turkey’s Health Minister Ahmet Demircan has said the country is ready to take in wounded Palestinians, reported Bloomberg. The country’s emergency agency and the military had prepared an “air bridge” to transport wounded in the violence and were waiting for negotiations to conclude, said Demircan.
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