Turkey expels Israeli consul in spat over Gaza violence

REUTERS - Turkey has ordered the Israeli consul general in Istanbul to return to Israel "for some time", a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said today (May 16), in a diplomatic spat which follows the killings of 60 Palestinian protesters by Israeli forces. Turkey has been among the most vocal critics of the Israeli use of deadly force against protesters at the Gaza border and of the U.S. decision to open its new embassy in a ceremony attended by President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner. President Tayyip Erdogan described Monday's bloodshed, the deadliest for Palestinians since the 2014 Gaza conflict, as genocide and called Israel a terrorist state. The government declared three days of mourning. Turkey has expelled Israel's ambassador and recalled its ambassadors from Tel Aviv and Washington.