Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected criticism leveled at Israel by Turkey over the IDF's handling of Friday's mass march on the Israel-Gaza Strip border, saying it was "a joke."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday criticized Israel for what he called its "inhumane attack" on demonstrators d march, organized by the Hamas terrorist group that controls the coastal enclave.
Some 30,000 Palestinians took part in the march. Hundreds of protesters rioted during the march, hurling rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops. Seventeen Palestinians were killed and Gaza's health authorities reported that over 1,400 were wounded. The Israeli military said that 10 of the fatalities were known terrorists.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry accused Israel of using "disproportionate force" against "peaceful protests," French news agency AFP said.
"I strongly condemn the Israeli government over its inhumane attack," Erdogan said during a speech in Istanbul.
"Israel will get trapped under the oppression it inflicts in Palestine. We will continue to support our Palestinian sisters and brothers in their rightful cause until the very end," he wrote earlier Saturday on social media.
Erdogan also used the violence in Gaza to score political points.
"Have you heard any noteworthy objections to the massacre by Israel that happened yesterday in Gaza from those who criticize the Afrin operation?" Erdogan demanded.
He was referring to Western nations that have recently criticized Ankara over its cross-border operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units in its enclave of Afrin in northern Syria.
Dismissing the criticism, Netanyahu tweeted, "The most moral army in the world will not be lectured to by those who for years have bombed civilians indiscriminately. I guess Ankara, too, marks April Fool's Day."
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, for his part, stated that "the terrorists from Tel Aviv only understand force."
He said Friday's death toll proved that U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to move his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was threatening the stability of the Middle East, adding that "Israel's crimes are continuing under the auspices of the United States."
Larijani called on the Muslim world to "unite and support the legitimate fight for Palestinian rights, and take the necessary steps to ostracize the Zionist regime."
Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps and Tehran's Foreign Ministry also condemned Israel over Friday's events.
"Despite the fact that Israel has a long history of occupation, killing and crimes, the support of President Trump and the American administration unfortunately only encourages the Israeli regime to continue killing Palestinian children," the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
