Israeli ambassador welcomed with eggs in Turkey

Israel's ambassador to Ankara has been pelted with eggs during a visit to a Turkish university in the coastal city of Trabzon.

Angry Turkish students threw eggs at Gabi Levy as he arrived at Karadeniz Teknik university on Wednesday.

The students protesting against Tel Aviv's policies regarding the Palestinians, including the issues of illegal settlement activity in the West bank and the war on the Gaza Strip.

Police detained a group of 20 students and the Israeli ambassador left without getting out of his vehicle, Anatolia reported.

The embarrassing incident came only one day after Gabi Levy, who is on a tour of the region, faced harsh criticism in the nearby city of Rize, where local officials condemned Israel's "policies of expansion and occupation" and said that the so-called “self-defense” should not involve "killing children."

Ankara-Tel Aviv re relations deteriorated after Israel's deadly military offensive in Gaza that killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, at the turn of the year.

The two side's bilateral relations further deteriorated last month, after Ankara excluded Israel from an international air force exercise in protest at "the humanitarian tragedy" in Gaza and called for an immediate lifting of Gaza siege, which has put the region's 1.5 million population in desperate need of basic necessities.