16 May 2018•Update: 17 May 2018
By Turgut Alp Boyraz and Mustafa Deveci
JERUSALEM
Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned Turkey’s temporary charge d’affaires in Tel Aviv, Umut Deniz, on Wednesday.
The ministry said in a written statement that it expressed discomfort to Deniz over alleged mistreatment during the departure from Turkey of Eitan Naehe, Israel's ambassador to Ankara.
Turkey on Tuesday asked the diplomat to leave the country “for some time” following indiscriminate violence and killings by Israeli soldiers along the Gaza border.
Accompanied by a personal security guard and some consulate officers, Naeh left for Tel Aviv from Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport at 11.30 a.m. (0830GMT) Wednesday on a Turkish Airlines charter plane.
On Monday at least 62 Palestinian demonstrators were martyred and thousands more injured by Israeli armed forces along the Gaza border, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Thousands of Palestinians had gathered on Gaza Strip’s eastern border to take part in protests marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel -- the Nakba ("Catastrophe") -- and protest the relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Since border rallies began on March 30, more than 100 Palestinian demonstrators have been martyred by cross-border Israeli gunfire, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Last week, the Israeli government claimed the ongoing border protests constituted a “state of war” in which international humanitarian law does not apply.
