Turkey, Israel exchange jibes over Gaza dead

• Guatemala follows US footsteps in Jerusalem

• PA recalls envoys to  four EU countries

Turkey has told the Israeli consul general in Istanbul to leave the country temporarily, state media said yesterday, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat expulsions in a growing crisis over Israel's killing of Palestinians on the Gaza border.

The Turkish foreign ministry has told the consul to leave Turkey "for a period of time", the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Turkey had already withdrawn its ambassador in Tel Aviv for consultations and told Israel's ambassador to Ankara to leave, while Israel ordered the Turkish consul in Jerusalem to leave, also for an unspecified period of time.

Israel's foreign ministry yesterday summoned the Turkish charge d'affaires in Israel to its Jerusalem headquarters for a reprimand over what it called in a statement "inappropriate treatment" of Israeli ambassador Eitan Naeh as he departed Istanbul airport.

The statement said that Naeh was subjected to "a stringent security check in the pre-arranged presence of the Turkish media."

The Israeli statement invited local news teams to film Turkish charge d'affaires Umut Deniz when he arrives at the foreign ministry later in the afternoon.

The row, which on Tuesday saw President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu exchange bitter jibes on Twitter, threatens a 2016 deal on normalising ties after a long-running crisis.

Guatemala inaugurated its Israel embassy in Jerusalem yesterday, becoming the first country to follow in the footsteps of the United States.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has recalled its envoys to Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria after their ambassadors attended an Israeli reception marking the US embassy's move to Jerusalem.