Israeli premier blasts Turkish president, who called Israel 'terrorist state, occupier'. 'Erdogan isn't used to people talking back to him.'

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu hit back at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday evening, after the Turkish leader accused Netanyahu of being a ‘terrorist’, and described Israel as a ‘terror state’.

Earlier on Sunday, Erdogan gave a televised speech in southern Turkey, during which he denounced Israel for its response to a Hamas-led provocation on the Israel-Gaza border on Friday.

"Hey Netanyahu! You are occupier. And it is as an occupier that are you are on those lands. At the same time, you are a terrorist," Erdogan said in a televised speech in Adana, southern Turkey, AFP reported.

During his speech, Erdogan also dubbed Israel a “terror state”.

"I do not need to tell the world how cruel the Israeli army is. We can see what this terror state is doing by looking at the situation in Gaza and Jerusalem," Turkey’s Daily Sabah reported Erdogan as saying.

"Israel has carried out a massacre in Gaza and Netanyahu is a terrorist," Erdogan said.

The Israeli premier responded Sunday evening, tweeting that Turkey, not Israel, is the occupying power.

“Erdogan is not used to having people talk back to him. But he should get used to it. Someone who occupies Northern Cyprus, invades Kurdish areas and massacres civilians in Afrin won’t lecture us about morals and values.”

On Friday, tens of thousands of Arab protesters marched towards the frontier, the beginning of six weeks of planned protests against President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The protests will culminate in a mass demonstration on May 15th, a day after Israel’s 70th Independence Day and the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.

At least 17 protesters who attempted to scale Israel’s security fence or hurled firebombs at soldiers were killed in Friday’s clashes, with hundreds more wounded. Ten of those killed were affiliated with the Hamas terror organization which rules the Gaza Strip.

That evening, the IDF thwarted an attempted shooting attack by a terror cell in northern Gaza.

On Friday, Turkey blasted Israel for its use of what a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman termed “disproportionate force” against the Hamas-led protest

"We strongly condemn Israel's use of disproportionate force against Palestinians during the peaceful protests today in Gaza," the foreign ministry in Ankara said in a statement quoted by AFP.

On Saturday, Turkish President Erdogan slammed Israel for the “inhumane attack”.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu mocked Erdogan in a tweet Sunday, calling Erdogan’s attack an April Fool’s Day joke.

“The most moral army in the world will not be lectured to on morality from someone who for years has been bombing civilians indiscriminately," Netanyahu wrote.

He added, referring to April Fool's Day: "Apparently this is how they mark April 1 in Ankara."