Hamas hails Türkiye's decisions to suspend trade with Israel as ‘victory for Palestinians’

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas praised on Friday Türkiye’s decisions to suspend trade with Israel considering it a “victory for the Palestinian people.”

“We highly value the decisions recently taken by the Republic of Türkiye as a victory for our Palestinian people who are being subjected to a horrific genocide,” Hamas said in a statement.

The movement hailed both the cessation of commercial trade with Israel and Türkiye’s decision to join the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Tel Aviv before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In the second phase of restrictive measures, Türkiye suspended all export and import operations with Israel due to its "aggression against Palestine in violation of international law and human rights," the Turkish Trade Ministry announced late Thursday.

Türkiye will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows the uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, it noted.

On Wednesday, the head of the Turkish parliament's Justice Committee Cuneyt Yuksel said Türkiye will officially apply to be a part of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last Oct. 7 which killed some 1,200 people.

Nearly 34,600 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and thousands injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling siege on the seaside enclave, leaving most of its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi