ISTANBUL, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his aggressive tweet, saying the Israeli leader is heading a "state terrorism."

"You are the voice of oppressors. You are conducting state terrorism," Erdogan said of Netanyahu at an event in Istanbul.

A day earlier, Netanyahu said on his Twitter account that "Erdogan, the occupier of northern Cyprus, whose army massacres women and children in Kurdish villages, inside and outside Turkey, should not preach to Israel."

"Israel has no right to accuse anyone without accounting for its own sins, crimes against humanity, massacres and destruction," Erdogan countered.

"Unhappy with us for helping Palestinian victims, Israeli prime minister attacked today with vile insults and slander," the Turkish president said. "Netanyahu accuses us of invasion in Cyprus. I think it is a slip of tongue. He was going to say they were invaders themselves in Palestine."

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu denounced Netanyahu as a "cold-blooded killer."

Turkey and Israel returned ambassadors to each other in 2016 in efforts to normalize ties damaged by an Israeli raid on a Turkish aid ship heading toward the Gaza Strip in May 2010, in which nine Turks were killed.

Bilateral relations chilled again in May this year after Ankara recalled its ambassador and expelled the Israeli envoy over the deaths of dozens of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces.