The trade ministry said the decision would remain in place until Israel halted its attacks and allowed sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza.
After Israeli officials refused to allow Turkey to airdrop aid over the besieged and bombed Gaza Strip, Turkey said it would impose restrictions on exports to Israel until a ceasefire was achieved and aid to the Strip increased.
Turkey’s Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday it would not send goods from 54 categories to Israel, including steel products, jet fuel, construction equipment, machinery, cement, granite, chemicals, pesticides and bricks.
“Israel continues to flagrantly violate international law and defy the international community,” the statement said. “This decision will remain in effect until Israel declares an immediate ceasefire and allows full and uninterrupted humanitarian aid to flow to Gaza.”
More than 33,000 people have been killed in Israel’s six-month war on Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, and many countries are outraged by the death toll and humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel’s attacks and siege. Israel launched the offensive in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded to Turkey’s announcement, saying Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was “once again sacrificing the economic interests of the Turkish people for his support for Hamas killers in Gaza.”
He added that Israel would take “measures to damage the Turkish economy,” including banning some imports from Turkey, asking US-based organisations to stop investing in Turkey and asking “friends in the US Congress” to impose sanctions on Turkey.
The announcement of the trade restrictions came a day after Turkey promised “gradual” retaliation against Israel after Israel blocked a Turkish military cargo plane from dropping aid over Gaza.
“We will continue to support our Palestinian brothers until the bloodshed in Gaza stops and they live in a free Palestine based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as their capital,” Erdogan said on Tuesday, adding that Turkey was sending 45,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the region.
Israel and Turkey withdrew their ambassadors from their respective capitals shortly after the war began.
The two countries have been at loggerheads since then, with Erdogan calling Israel a “terrorist state,” stressing Turkey’s support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and condemning Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories during a hearing at the International Court of Justice.
But data released by the Turkish Exporters Association showed that the Turkish government had not taken any real measures against Israel until Tuesday, and although trade has declined since Oct. 7, experts say it has increased every month so far this year.
The Turkish government has faced criticism at home over its wartime commercial ties with Israel, which many see as contributing to its heavy defeat in local elections at the end of March.
“Unfortunately, we have not been able to fend off political attacks and convince some people, even on issues like the Gaza crisis, for which we have tried our best and paid the price,” Erdogan was quoted as telling local media after the vote.
Israeli Army Radio on Tuesday quoted Ron Tomer, president of the Israeli Manufacturers Association, as saying that about 50 percent of Israel’s cement, steel and marble imports come from Turkey, adding that Turkey is also in the process of “taking over” other sectors, including Israel’s construction industry.
“Maybe now the government will wake up and wean itself off its dependency on Turkey,” he said.
