Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that his government has halted all trade with Israel that amounts to some $9.5 billion.
Speaking to reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul, the Turkish president said that they “closed that door" on trade with Israel amid the ongoing onslaught on Gaza.
On Thursday, Türkiye announced the suspension of all export and import operations with Israel due to its "aggression against Palestine in violation of international law and human rights."
President Erdogan, blasting Israel’s ongoing aggression in Gaza, also said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s moves made a possible Türkiye-Israel rapprochement impossible.
“That meeting had an objective,” Erdogan said, referring to when he and Netanyahu met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly before Israel's war on Gaza started October 7.
“But Netanyahu is relentless,” he said. “He responded by attacking women and children.”
West's failure to help Palestinians
Erdogan also criticised the West for its ongoing support to Israel.
“All Western countries, led by the US, are supporting Israel and they are sparing no efforts to condemn the poverty-stricken Palestinians to death,” he said.
Israel continues its onslaught on Gaza where at least 34,622 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,867 injured since October 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85 percent of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
