Israel expels Turkish consul in Jerusalem in tit-for-tat move

Israel ordered the Turkish consul in Jerusalem to leave for an unspecified period of time, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday after Turkey demanded the same of the Israeli ambassador in Ankara over Israeli violence on the Gaza border.

The ministry's spokesman said the consul had been summoned and was told to return to Turkey "for consultations for a period of time."

Turkey ordered Israeli ambassador Eitan Naeh to leave and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Israel was an "apartheid state" after the killings of 62 Palestinians in protests along the Gaza border against the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.

Most of the Palestinians killed on Monday were shot by Israeli snipers, Gaza's health ministry has said, and included a eight-month-old baby who died from tear gas inhalation along with eight children under the age of 16.

Turkey announced three days of national mourning and recalled its ambassadors to Israel and the United States over the violence.