Türkiye asks Israeli ambassador to return home

Turkish diplomatic officials revealed today that the country has summoned Israeli ambassador to Türkiye Eitan Naeh to protest the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip, and asked Mr. Naeh to "return to his country for a while,"AFPreport

Ankara reacted angrily after Israeli soldiers shot dead nearly 60 Palestinian protesters and injured 2,400. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag announced that Turkey would recall its ambassadors to Israel and the United States and declare three days of mourning for Palestinians killed in Gaza.

The statement was made by Türkiye after the US inaugurated a new embassy in Jerusalem, provoking unprecedented large-scale protests in the Gaza Strip, bordering Israel. Mr. Bozdag also called on Muslim countries to review their relations with Israel, and proposed holding an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on May 18.

The May 14 protests saw the highest death toll in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the Gaza Strip. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel's violence and called on the international community, especially Arab and Muslim countries, to act quickly to "confront the massacres targeting peaceful people."

FirstIn December 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that he would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and affirmed that he would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This announcement immediately met with criticism from Palestine and many countries around the world, because Jerusalem remains the center of the conflict between Palestine and Israel.