Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday said Ankara has “totally cut” trade with Israel and closed Turkey’s airspace to Israeli planes, though Israeli airlines said they received no new instructions.
Fidan’s statement contained no new information, however, and The Times of Israel learned that Israeli officials believe he was simply laying out, with some inaccuracies, actions Turkey has already taken against Israel over the war against Hamas in Gaza.
“We have totally cut our trade with Israel, we have closed off our ports to Israeli ships and we are not allowing Turkish vessels to go to Israel’s ports,” Fidan told an extraordinary parliamentary session on Israel’s attacks on the Strip.
“We are not allowing container ships carrying weapons and ammunition to Israel to enter our ports, and airplanes to go into our airspace,” he added, without giving details.
Fidan also said Turkey was set to carry out airdrops of aid to Gaza. “Our planes are ready, once Jordan gives its approval, we will be in a position to go,” he told lawmakers.
The Israeli government did not immediately comment on Fidan’s remarks, which came a day after Saudi outlet Al-Hadath reported that an Israeli raid in the Damascus area overnight Wednesday-Thursday dismantled Turkish surveillance devices intended to monitor Israel.
Responding to Fidan’s statement, Hamas urged “Turkey, as well as Arab and Islamic countries and the free nations of the world, to escalate punitive measures against” Israel, “sever all relations with it, and work to isolate it — so as to compel it to halt the genocide and destruction of Gaza.”
Despite Fidan’s statement, Israeli airplanes were still operating in Turkish airspace on Friday and received no instructions to do otherwise, Army Radio reported.
“Following reports about Turkey’s decision to close its airspace to Israeli planes, Arkia is in contact with the relevant authorities,” the Israeli airline told The Times of Israel. “At this stage, no operational instructions have been received.”
Israir also told The Times of Israel that “the airspace has not been closed.”
“Our flights are operating as scheduled with no changes, and we are in regular contact with the Civil Aviation Authority,” said the carrier.
Shipping sources already told Reuters last week that Turkish port authorities had started informally requiring shipping agents to provide letters declaring that vessels are not linked to Israel and not carrying military or hazardous cargo bound for the country.
A source had also said that Turkish-flagged ships would be prohibited from calling at Israeli ports.
Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a Turkey expert at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, nonetheless considered Fidan’s latest statement to be credible and dramatic.
“Turkey is adopting a gradual punishment strategy against Israel,” said Yanarocak. “When Israel declared its intention to launch an invasion of Gaza City, Ankara imposed naval sanctions that barred Israeli ships from visiting Turkish ports. And today, following news that the IDF launched an extraterritorial raid against Syrian army outposts, where Turkey had intelligence devices to track the activities of Israeli troops, Ankara made a new decision and shut down its airspace to Israeli planes.”
“This move is certainly unprecedented, and it will not be easy to reverse in the future,” he said.
Turkey, a leading supporter of Hamas, has been one of the harshest critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Last year, Turkey said it was stopping all exports and imports to and from Israel, though some are said to have quietly continued.
The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8 billion in 2023, and Turkey was Israel’s fifth-largest source of imported goods. Israel and Turkey have free trade agreements from the mid-1990s that are now being abrogated.
Istanbul had also long been a popular destination for Israeli tourists, many of whom traveled on Turkish Airlines and used Turkey’s Atatürk Airport as a cheaper option for connecting flights to destinations in Europe and elsewhere.
Before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, Turkish Airlines was the fourth-largest carrier at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. In April, Turkish carriers waived their flight slots at the airport.
Sharon Wrobel and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.