Turkey tells Israeli envoy to leave over Gaza deaths

Turkey today told the Israeli ambassador to temporarily leave after Ankara reacted with outrage to the killing of dozens of Palestinians by Israeli troops on the Gaza border, in the worst crisis since 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.

The official said that this was also in line with Turkey recalling its ambassador to Tel Aviv for consultations.

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.

Ankara has reacted with fury to the killing on Monday of 60 Palestinians in clashes and protests, on the same day as the US formally moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, currently on a visit to Britain, had on Monday stepped up his rhetoric, accusing Israel of of "state terror" and "genocide" over the killings.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then hit back at Erdogan, saying that as a leading supporter of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas "there's no doubt he's an expert on terror and slaughter."