2024-04-09T17:35:54+00:00
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/ Turkey and Israel announced the imposition of mutual trade restrictions on Tuesday, as a result of the deterioration of their relations amid the war in Gaza.
Turkey, which strongly criticizes Israeli military actions in Gaza, imposed for the first time restrictions on exports of 54 types of products to Israel with immediate effect.
Exports include aluminum and steel products, construction products, aviation fuel and chemical fertilizers.
In response to Turkish trade restrictions, Israel announced that it was preparing to impose a ban on Turkish products.
This step came a day after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced that Israel prevented Turkish military cargo planes from joining the operation to drop humanitarian aid into Gaza, and pledged to respond with a series of measures against Israel until it declares a ceasefire in Gaza and allows the flow of aid without interruption.
Fidan said when announcing retaliatory steps against Israel, “There is no excuse for Israel to prevent our attempt to deliver aid by air to the people of Gaza who are suffering from hunger.”
The Turkish President intensified his criticism of Israel in the wake of its military operations in Gaza, describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as war crimes that almost amount to “genocide,” and stressed that the armed Hamas movement, which Israel, the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist organization, is a group fighting to liberate… Its lands and its people.
In a post on the X website, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Erdogan “once again sacrifices the economic interests of the Turkish people for his support of Hamas’ killers in Gaza.”
In the same post, he said that he contacted organizations in the United States and asked them to stop investments in Turkey and refrain from importing Turkish goods.
Turkish exports to Israel reached $5.4 billion in 2023, according to the Turkish Statistical Office.
Turkey and Israel normalized relations by exchanging ambassadors in 2022, after years of tensions between the two countries.