Israel’s foreign minister accuses Turkey of ‘breaking’ trade deal and blocking goods

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Israel’s foreign minister has accused Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of “breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports”, amid simmering tensions between the two countries over the war in Gaza.

“This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,” Israel Katz wrote on the social media platform X on Thursday.

“I have instructed the director-general of the [Israel foreign ministry] to immediately engage with all relevant parties in the government to create alternatives for trade with Turkey, focusing on local production and imports from other countries.”

Katz’s post came shortly before Bloomberg reported Turkey had stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel as of Thursday. Ankara had previously sanctioned exports in 54 important categories of goods but had refrained from a full trade embargo on the Jewish state.

Turkey’s trade ministry did not respond to requests for comment. 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 the Jewish state 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 seek to join South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

Turkey’s exports to Israel totalled $5.4bn last year from $7bn in 2022, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. Trade with Israel accounts for only a small share of Turkey’s overall exports.

A Free Trade Agreement between the two countries came into force in 1997.