Turkey severs economic ties with Israel, closes airspace and ports

Turkey announced on Friday that it has severed trade and economic ties with Israel and closed its airspace to Israeli aircraft, measures that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said were a response to Israel's continuing military operations in Gaza. Speaking to lawmakers in Ankara at an extraordinary parliamentary session, Fidan said Turkey had also closed its ports to Israeli ships, barred Turkish vessels from calling at Israeli ports and would not allow ships carrying weapons or ammunition bound for Israel to enter Turkish harbors.

Fidan framed the moves as a response to what he called Israel's "continued massacres" in Gaza and an effort to force Palestinians from the enclave through restrictions on humanitarian aid. He accused Israeli leaders of seeking to render Gaza unlivable, undermining a two state solution and provoking instability across the wider Middle East, including in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Syria, Iran and Lebanon. "No other country has completely cut off its trade with Israel," he told parliament, adding that Ankara would continue diplomatic coordination with Qatar and Egypt to seek a resolution to the Palestinian issue.

Details about the new measures varied in...