Turkey Stops All Trade With Israel Over “Worsening Humanitarian Tragedy” In Gaza

Due to Israel’s Gaza offensive, Turkey has halted all trade with the country, citing the “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the region.

The restrictions would remain in place until Israel permits an “uninterrupted and sufficient flow” of supplies into Gaza, according to the Turkish Trade Ministry. Last year, trade between the two nations was valued at about $7 billion (£5.6 billion).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was charged by Israel’s foreign minister with behaving like a “dictator”. Erdogan was “disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen and ignoring international trade agreements,” according to Israel Katz on X.

He went on to say that he had given the foreign ministry instructions to look for additional ways to trade with Turkey, emphasizing both domestic production and imports from other nations.

Turkey claimed in a statement that “all products” were affected by the trade restriction.

“Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

The first nation with a majority of Muslims to recognize Israel was Turkey in 1949. However, things have gotten worse in recent years.

After ten pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed in skirmishes with Israeli commandos who boarded a Turkish-owned ship in an attempt to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, Turkey severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 2010.

In 2016, relations were repaired, but two years later, over Israel’s murder of Palestinians during protests along the Gaza-Israel border, both nations removed their top diplomats from each other.