Turkey Cuts All Trade Ties with Israel & Joins South Africa’s Genocide Case before ICJ | Israeli Foreign Minister Katz Responds on X about Erdogan “…This is how a dictator behaves.”

Survivability News Special Desk: Turkey halted all trade with Israel as of Thursday, according to two Turkish officials. The Turkish move to suspend all trade ties with Israel was confirmed when Israeli government officials claimed that Ankara was also preventing third countries from using Turkish ports for Israeli trade.

The move by Turkey was precedented by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announcing the day before that his country would also join South Africa’s case against Israel at the UN International Court of Justice. The UN court is currently assessing South Africa’s claims that Israeli actions in Gaza that have killed over 34,000 civilians, more than 17,000 children, and which have led to death of dozens of children from starvation, amongst other documented atrocities, are in breach of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

All Turkish exports and imports to and from Israel were suspended, Bloomberg also reported, citing two Turkish officials familiar with the matter.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz separately said that Ankara had also started to block Israeli imports and exports at Turkish ports.

Accusing Turkey of breaking trade agreements, Katz said he instructed the Israeli Foreign Ministry to pursue alternatives for trade, focusing on “local production and imports from other countries.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry hasn’t clarified, as of this writing, which ports have been blocked and whether Turkey’s move also involves blocking Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, through which Israel imports Azerbaijani oil. The Israeli Foreign Ministry is currently verifying the economic implications of a Turkish decision to stop the exports, a diplomatic source told Al-Monitor.

Turkey imposed trade restrictions on 54 product groups in April, a move widely believed to be in response to domestic pressure for the suspension of trade ties with the country amid the rising humanitarian toll in Gaza.

The two countries’ bilateral trade volume stood at $5.4 billion last year, according to official data.

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