Israel has asked its diplomats in Turkey to leave the country as a “security measure”, a source close to the matter told AFP on Thursday.

“This is a temporary measure that should be short-lived,” insisted the source, who declined to be identified.

Israel on Wednesday asked its citizens to leave Turkey as soon as possible for their own safety, citing growing “terrorist threats” to its citizens abroad, according to the Jewish state’s consulate in Istanbul.

According to this source, the security alert for Israeli travelers to Turkey has been “raised to level 4, the highest.”

“Given the ever-increasing terrorist threats against Israelis abroad (…) all Israelis in Turkey should leave the country as soon as possible,” Israel’s National Security Council also warned in an official statement.

Demonstrations took place outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul and the embassy in Ankara on Tuesday night after a rocket attack on a hospital in the Gaza Strip sparked a wave of condemnation and demonstrations across the Arab world.

Israel and the Palestinians deny responsibility for the attack, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed on Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces released drone footage showing that the explosion that killed hundreds of people at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip was not caused by an Israeli bombardment, the IDF said, saying it would have left a huge crater. the Times of Israel notes.

Last year, the two countries restored diplomatic relations after a decade of rifts.

Erdogan, who has always presented himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause, even met President Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time last month in New York on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

There is deep skepticism in the Middle East about Israel’s and the US’s assessment of the Gaza hospital bombing, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said, The Guardian reports.

“No one believes this story in this part of the world,” Safadi told NBC News.

“The only way people will accept a different story is if there is an independent international investigation into the tragedy that happened, with irrefutable evidence that it was not Israel,” he said.