Ankara, October 20: Israel has reportedly withdrawn all its diplomatic personnel from Turkey citing “security concerns” in the backdrop of the deadly Israel-Hamas conflict.
According to Xinhua news agency, unnamed diplomatic sources said that all Israeli personnel posted at diplomatic missions in Turkey have been brought back due to security reasons.
On Tuesday, the Israeli National Security Council issued a travel advisory urging Israeli citizens in Turkey to depart as soon as possible.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets across Turkey following Tuesday’s tragic explosion at a hospital in Gaza, which caused scores of casualties. Some of these protests escalated near Israeli diplomatic missions in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.
The Gaza-based health ministry revealed on Wednesday that at least 471 Palestinians were killed in the explosion at Al-Ahli Arabic Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Hamas claimed Israel was responsible for the destruction of the hospital through airstrikes, while Israel blamed the explosion on a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
The conflict escalated on 7 October when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israeli military targets and communities near the Gaza Strip. In response, Israel launched widespread airstrikes on Gaza, resulting in approximately 1,300 casualties among its own civilians. Meanwhile, the Gaza-based health ministry said the Palestinian death toll from Israeli retaliatory air strikes had reached 3,478.
