Turkish Def. Min. Slams Netanyahu's Remarks on Ankara's Kurdish Policy - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Turkish Defence Ministry on Tuesday criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent comments about Ankara's hard-line policy toward the Kurds, calling them "slander," Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday.

The Turkish Defence Ministry on Tuesday rejected Netanyahu's statement as “baseless and deluded," stressing that those responsible for the killing of Palestinian children could not criticise the Turkish army, according to the Anadolu news agency.

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On Sunday, Netanyahu criticised Turkey's army for "massacring" Kurdish women and children, calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the "anti-Semitic dictator." The prime minister's comments came a day after Erdogan accused the Israeli prime minister of committing "state terror" against the Palestinian people.

Erdogan and Netanyahu have on numerous occasions verbally clashed, with the Turkish president accusing Israel of "thuggery, violence and state terror" amid the Palestinians' Great March of Return

The row between the Turkish and Israeli leaders flared following the recent escalation of tensions on the Israel-Gaza border, which claimed lives of four Palestinians on Friday.

Since April-May 2018, relations between Israel and Turkey hit a new low after they expelled each other's envoys following Erdogan and Netanyahu clashing over protests in the Gaza Strip and the US Embassy's relocation to Jerusalem.