Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday accused Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a “tyrant” who “massacred” Palestinian babies, in the latest exchange between the two leaders, AFP reported.
“Hey Netanyahu, behave yourself. You are a tyrant, you are a tyrant who massacred 7-year-old Palestinian children,” Erdoğan told a rally in response to the Israeli leader branding him a “dictator.”
Turkey and Israel have tense relations, and Erdoğan, who sees himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause, is a vocal critic of Israeli policies.
Erdoğan’s remarks came after unrest near the Temple Mount, also known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, on Tuesday.
Palestinians threw a fire bomb at an Israeli police post at a site revered by Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem, and Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including one troops said attacked them with a knife, Euronews reported.
Netanyahu’s office responded to Erdoğan with a statement.
“Turkey’s dictator Erdogan attacks Israel’s democracy while Turkish journalists and judges fill his prisons,” it read. “What a joke!”