Turkey cuts all trade ties with Israel, shuts its airspace and ports over Gaza war

Turkey on Friday announced that it has decided to completely sever all commercial and economic ties with Israel and close its airspace to Israeli aircraft, marking a sharp escalation in diplomatic tensions between the two countries amid the ongoing war in Gaza. The government has also barred Turkish vessels from entering Israeli ports.

Announcing the decision, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned that Israel’s military operations across the Middle East could engulf the entire region in conflict if not halted. He also called for international action against Israel and urged world powers to stop supporting it.

“We have completely cut off our trade with Israel. We do not allow Turkish ships to go to Israeli ports. We do not allow their planes to enter our airspace,” news agency AP quoted Fidan as saying at a special parliamentary debate on Gaza in Ankara.

Ankara has been a vocal critic of Israel’s assault on Gaza, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly describing its actions as genocide and drawing comparisons between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Adolf Hitler.

The Turkish foreign minister added, "No country has so far taken a more meaningful step that includes sanctions against Israel".

The tensions came days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a rare move, publicly recognized the Armenian genocide. The remark, made unexpectedly during a podcast interview with U.S. commentator Patrick Bet-David, was the first time Netanyahu had acknowledged the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I as genocide. “I just did it. Here you go,” Netanyahu said when pressed on why Israel had not recognized it before.

Fidan told parliament the move follows a series of measures Turkey has taken in recent months in protest of Israel’s military campaign. But his statement left some ambiguity: Turkey had already declared an economic cutoff earlier this year, and his remarks on airspace sounded more like a reference to existing restrictions than a new policy.

So far, Israeli carriers and aviation authorities said they had not received any official notification from Turkey. Israeli airlines mainly use Turkish airspace for flights to Georgia, and Israir, which operated a flight to Batumi on Friday, said operations were continuing as scheduled. “Our flights are operating normally with no changes,” the airline said, adding it was in contact with the Civil Aviation Authority and would update passengers if circumstances changed.