Turkey orders Israeli envoy to leave Ankara

FE Team | Published: May 17, 2018 00:42:09

ISTANBUL, May 16 (Agencies): Turkey on Tuesday ordered the Israeli ambassador to leave and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel was an "apartheid state" as the killing of dozens of Palestinians threatened a 2016 reconciliation deal.
Ambassador Eitan Naeh was summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry and told to "return to his country for a period of time", said a foreign ministry official, who asked not to be named.
In a growing crisis over Monday's killing of 60 Palestinians by Israeli forces on the Gaza border, Israel responded by ordering the Turkish consul in Jerusalem to leave for an unspecified period of time, its foreign ministry said.
Naeh had been in his post only since December 2016 after a reconciliation deal earlier that year ended a dispute over the May 2010 deadly storming of a Turkish ship by Israeli commandos that saw ties downgraded for over half a decade.
That deal was strongly backed by the United States, which was keen to see Israel make up with one of its very few key Muslim partners.
Turkey had already called back its ambassador to Tel Aviv-as well as the envoy to Washington-for consultations over the bloodshed.
Ankara has reacted with fury to the killings, which came on the same day as the US formally moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
Turkey on Tuesday began observing three days national mourning declared by Erdogan for the Palestinian dead, with flags flying at half mast and cultural events cancelled.
Meanwhile, following in US' footsteps, Guatemala opens its embassy in Jerusalem, despite international condemnation.
Guatemala has opened its embassy in Jerusalem, following in the footsteps of the United States that inaugurated its embassy in the city two days prior, in a move that has triggered international condemnation.
Wednesday's development comes amid widespread anger and protests in the occupied Palestinian territories, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, or Catastrophe.
The event marks the day when Israel was created in a violent campaign that led to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland.
The inauguration of the Guatemalan embassy, which was attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, also comes amid outrage over the Israeli army's killing of 62 Palestinians protesting in the Gaza Strip on Monday.
Morales said Guatemala was sending a message of "love, peace and fraternity" to Israel amid praise from Netanyahu.
Reporting from West Jerusalem, Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett said that the Guatemalan government claimed it was not pressured by the US to move its embassy.