Turkey says airspace closed to Israel as it condemns 'reckless attacks'

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says Ankara has cut off trade with Israel

Turkey said on Friday it has closed its airspace to Israeli aircraft as it condemned Israel's "reckless attacks" around the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday that Turkey had severed all economic and commercial ties with Israel and imposed an airspace ban due to the war in Gaza. He said Turkey does not allow its ships to sail to Israeli ports.

The scope and timing of the airspace ban were not immediately clear, as flight trackers showed Israeli commercial airlines still flying over Turkish territory on Friday on routes to Georgia and Russia.

"Israel’s reckless attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran is the clearest sign of a terrorist state mentality defying international order," Mr Fidan said in a speech at an extraordinary session of parliament.

Hamas said it urged "Turkey, as well as Arab and Islamic countries and the free nations of the world, to escalate punitive measures" against Israel. The Palestinian Authority was on Friday calling for an arms embargo.

Israel has defied international condemnation by expanding its war in Gaza with a new offensive against Gaza city. This week alone it has also landed troops in Syria and launched strikes on Yemen, as well as maintaining regular attacks on Lebanon.

During the session, Turkey's parliament speaker Numan Kurtulmus called for Israel to be suspended from the UN and other international organisations over its policies in Gaza, local media reported.

Mr Fidan said Turkey has signed an important international initiative at the UN with the participation of 52 countries, calling for a halt in the supply of weapons and ammunition that "feeds Israel's war machine".

Turkey said in May last year that it would stop all trade with Israel until the country allows humanitarian aid to flow uninterrupted into Gaza.

Turkey and Israel have had a free-trade agreement in place since 1997, with steel, oil and plastic among the major trade items. Bilateral trade stood at nearly $6.8 billion in 2023, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute data. More than 75 per cent of this was Turkish exports.