Turkey tells Israel's Istanbul consul to leave

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Turkey has told the Israeli consul general in Istanbul to leave the country temporarily, state media said Wednesday, the latest of a series of tit-for-tat expulsions in a growing crisis over Israel killing over 60 Palestinians on the Gaza-Israel border.

The Turkish foreign ministry has told the Israeli consul to leave Turkey "for a period of time," state-run Anadolu news agency said. Turkey had already withdrawn its ambassador in Tel Aviv for consultations and told the Israeli ambassador to Ankara to leave, while Israel ordered the Turkish consul in Jerusalem to leave for an unspecified period of time.

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The current row has seen President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu exchange bitter jibes on Twitter. Erdogan this week has accused Israel of "genocide" and told Netanyahu he is leading an "apartheid state" while having the "blood of Palestinians" on his hands.

Netanyahu meanwhile told Erdogan that, as a leading supporter of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, "there's no doubt he's an expert on terror and slaughter."

In a tweet titled "Reminder to Netanyahu," Erdogan then denied that Hamas is a terror group, saying it is a "resistance movement that defends the Palestinian homeland against an occupying power."

World response to Israeli violence against Palestinians in Gaza

Protestors wave Palestinian flags in front of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, May 15, 2018. /VCG Photo

Turkey has also blamed tensions on the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. After talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday, Erdogan warned that history "will not forgive" Israel or the United States for moving the American embassy to Jerusalem in defiance of the Islamic world.

Erdogan will on Friday host an emergency summit meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul which he has said will send a "strong message to the world" on the issue.

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Source(s): AFP