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Israel has accused Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of “blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports”, in the latest flare-up between the two countries over the war in Gaza.
Israel Katz, foreign minister, said he had urgently instructed officials to “create alternatives for trade with Turkey” after claiming Ankara had breached a long-standing trade deal.
“This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,” Katz wrote on X.
Ankara had previously sanctioned exports in 54 important categories of goods but had refrained from a full trade embargo on the Jewish state.
Turkey has yet to disclose the full extent of any additional curbs, but one Turkish official told the Financial Times that further measures were under discussion to pressure Israel to allay the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Turkey’s trade ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Katz’s post came shortly before Bloomberg reported Turkey had stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel as of Thursday. Israel’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to questions over whether Ankara had formally notified Israel that it was making such a move.
Erdoğan has been ratcheting up his criticism on Israel in recent months, accusing it of acts of “genocide” over its war with Hamas and calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “butcher of Gaza”.
Turkey has also diverged from its western allies in declining to identify Hamas as a terrorist organisation and allowing its members to live in the country. Erdoğan hosted Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, for meetings in Turkey last month. Ankara this week also said it would attempt to join South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice.
Turkey’s trade with Israel was $7.1bn last year, down from $9.5bn in 2022, according to Trade Data Monitor, a customs database. Turkish exports accounted for about three-quarters of the trade. A free trade agreement between the two countries came into force in 1997.
Erdoğan has been facing significant pressure domestically to step up his measures against Israel, particularly after local elections in March where his party faced its biggest defeat since its founding two decades ago. Many candidates had said in campaigns that Erdoğan’s government had not taken sufficient action against Israel over the war in Gaza.
Erdoğan had pursued a policy of rapprochement with Israel prior to the start of the war on October 7, part of a wider effort to improve relations in the region and boost Turkey’s flagging economy. The Turkish president met Netanyahu for the first time last September at a UN General Assembly meeting.
Turkey and Israel had restored diplomatic relations in 2022. The two countries expelled each other’s ambassadors in 2018 over the killing of scores of protesters in Gaza by Israeli soldiers.
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