ANKARA — Tensions between Turkey and Israel escalated on Thursday after the Israeli side claimed that the Turkish government was easing the trade ban it imposed last week.
Slamming the claims as “completely fictional,” Turkey’s Trade Minister Omer Bolat said the trade ban was in effect and will remain so “until our conditions of the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to our Palestinian brothers in Gaza are met.”
His statement came in response to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz who earlier on Thursday claimed that Turkey had “canceled many of the trade restrictions.”
“The lesson is clear: We must not give in to the threats of a dictator,” Katz wrote on the social media platform X.
The Turkish Presidency’s communications directorate also hit back at the claim, saying it aimed at “manipulating international public opinion.”
Turkey announced on May 2 that it was halting all trade transactions with Israel after it had imposed trade restrictions on 54 product groups in April.
The latest spat between the two regional powers appears to stem from a directive sent by the Turkish Trade Ministry to companies that were doing business with Israel, introducing a three-month phase-out period for the ban. When the Turkish government first announced the move on May 2, the official statement noted the ban would start "effective immediately."
The directive is aimed at the companies to “fulfill existing orders via third countries,” Reuters reported, citing a source from the ministry.
Citing Israeli customs officials, the Israeli news outlets also reported that the ease on certain trade groups would only be limited to the three-month period. The adjustment period was introduced after a meeting between the Turkish and Israeli chambers of commerce last week after the Turkish announcement of the trade ban, according to the reports.
The trade restrictions imposed by the Turkish government in April included mainly steel and other construction materials. The ban announced last week, meanwhile, halted all trade between Turkey and Israel. Israeli importers had initially sought to continue imports through third countries but were unable to do so, as the ban included all Turkish-manufactured items destined for Israel as the final destination."
The two countries’ bilateral trade volume stood at $5.4 billion last year, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute, TurkStat. Despite decadeslong diplomatic frays and rifts largely due to the Palestinian conflict, trade ties between the two regional powers remained intact until the Hamas-Israel war.
