UPDATE - Türkiye halts trade with Israel amounting to $9.5B, says President Erdogan

ADDS MORE REMARKS FROM THE PRESIDENT

By Emre Basaran

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday 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 added that they “closed that door" on trade with Israel amid ongoing onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

"There was a trade volume of $9.5 billion between us," Erdogan said, referring to Türkiye and Israel. "Ignoring this trade volume, we closed the door."

Turkish Trade Ministry announced that Ankara suspended 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 the Gaza Strip, 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 the Israeli-Gaza conflict reignited on Oct. 7.

“But Netanyahu is relentless,” he said. “He responded by attacking women and children.”

Erdogan also criticized 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.

Erdogan also added that the ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestine is "unacceptable."

"Israel has brutally killed 40,000 to 45,000 Palestinians so far. As Muslims, it is unthinkable for us to stand by and watch this happen," he added.

Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where at least 34,622 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,867 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.