Turkish official denies claim Israeli jet was refused fuel after emergency landing

The incident has been a new low point in frayed Turkey-Israel relations

An Israeli El Al airliner in flight in 2020. Reuters

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Turkish authorities sought an exemption from a trade ban to provide jet fuel to an Israeli flag carrier before the pilot decided to depart, a Turkish official told The National on Monday, denying Israeli claims that the plane was not allowed to refuel at Antalya airport after an emergency landing.

Israeli flag carrier El Al said that flight LY5102, en route from Warsaw to Tel Aviv, was not allowed to refuel at Antalya airport on Sunday after it made the emergency landing to evacuate a sick passenger. “Local workers refused to refuel the company's plane even though it was a medical case,” it said.

But a Turkish diplomatic official said that because of a trade ban imposed by Ankara on Israel in May, airport workers could not provide jet fuel without seeking an exemption. Before the relevant paperwork could be completed, the El Al pilot decided to depart without refuelling, the official added.

“Fuel was to be provided to the plane due to humanitarian considerations, but as the relevant procedure was about to be completed, the captain decided to leave of his own accord,” explained the Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to El Al, the aircraft continued to the Greek island of Rhodes for refuelling.

The incident highlighted the consequences of Ankara’s fallout with Israel over the war in Gaza. It happened as new data showed a drop of over 99 per cent in the value of Turkish exports to Israel following the ban imposed in May.

It is one example of the consequences of the significant deterioration in Turkey-Israel relations since Hamas’ October 7 attacks and the start of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly backed Hamas, calling them freedom fighters, and has exchanged bitter words of criticism with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over social media.

Last week, Turkey’s statistics institute released the first trade figures to be published since the ban on doing business with Israel came into force on May 2.

According to the official figures, the value of Turkish exports to Israel dropped from $308.6 million in April to $1.5 million in May – a decrease of 99.5 per cent. In the past, Turkey exported large volumes of construction goods and metal to Israel.

For the first five months of 2024, overall Turkish exports to Israel came to $1.5 billion – a decrease from $2.44 billion from the same period the previous year.

“The reason for the decline is the trade ban,” a second Turkish official told The National. “The reason why it is not zero in May is because the ban came into effect on May 2.”

The value of Israeli imports to Turkey also fell from $157.9m in April to $9.1m in May.

The overall year-to-date value was $596m, down from $856.3m in the same period in 2023.

Turkey introduced the trade ban amid increasing domestic anger in Turkey over the war in Gaza, where about 38,000 people have been killed since the start of Israel's military operations in October.

Distrust between Ankara and Israel has dipped so sharply that even if the ban were to be lifted – which Turkey says will happen in the event of a ceasefire – Israeli firms will unlikely see its former trade partner as reliable.