Israel summons Turkey’s charge d’affaires

JERUSALEM – Anadolu Agency

Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned Turkey’s temporary charge d’affaires in Tel Aviv, Umut Deniz, on May 16.

The ministry said in a written statement that it expressed discomfort to Deniz over alleged mistreatment during the departure from Turkey of Eitan Na’eh, Israel’s ambassador to Ankara.

Turkey on May 15 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, Na’eh left for Tel Aviv from Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport at 11:30 a.m. on a Turkish Airlines charter plane.

On May 14, 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 to protest the relocation of the United States 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.