By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
ANKARA/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Wednesday that Turkey has cut its ties with the State of Israel, marking a sharp escalation in diplomatic tensions between the two nations.
“We have cut trade and ties with Israel, period,” Erdoğan said in remarks to Turkish media.
However, Israeli officials in Jerusalem said they were unaware of the diplomatic status change.
While Turkey recalled its ambassador from Israel “in protest of the Gaza War,” the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv is still operating, Israeli sources said.
Erdoğan spoke to reporters aboard his plane following recent visits to Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.
The Turkey’s leader stressed his condemnation of what he called “genocide” by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon.
ISRAEL DENIES
Israel’s government has vehemently denied committing atrocities, saying it is fighting Iran’s proxies, such as Hamas, after the group killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7 last year.
However, Erdoğan said there was “an urgent need” for humanitarian aid and an immediate ceasefire. “As you know, intense efforts are being made to keep the pressure on Israel alive and to take coercive measures against this country based on international law,” he added.
The Turkish president has been among Israel’s harshest critics before and after last year’s Hamas massacre, described as “the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust,” or Shoah.
He refused to condemn the Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians and instead lashed out at Israel for its war against Hamas in Gaza.
In March, Erdoğan emphasized Turkey’s strong ties with Hamas, which he refuses to recognize as a “terrorist organization.”
“Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them. No one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organization,” he said
HITLER COMPARISON
The Turkish president has also compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler who ordered the murder of six million Jews.
“Netanyahu and his administration, with their crimes against humanity in Gaza, are writing their names next to Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, like today’s Nazis,” Erdoğan claimed.
In May, the Turkish leader escalated his rhetoric by calling Netanyahu a “vampire” and said the State of Israel was a threat to “all of humanity.”
He also announced that Turkey would halt all commercial trade with the Jewish state. Former Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz strongly condemned Erdoğan, accusing him of undermining both Israeli and Turkish traders.
“Erdoğan crossed a line and blocked ports for Israeli exports and imports,” Katz complained.
“This is how a dictator behaves – trampling on the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen and ignoring international trade agreements,” he argued.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a sweeping overhaul of federal childhood vaccine recommendations, reducing the number of diseases for which vaccines are universally recommended while directing health officials to give parents greater control over when and how their children receive immunizations.
President Donald Trump scored a significant legal victory Monday in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC after a federal judge allowed him to amend his complaint and effectively wiped out the British broadcaster’s pending attempt to have the case dismissed.
A Vietnamese court has sentenced Montagnard Protestant pastor Y Nuen Ayun to seven and a half years in prison on charges of “undermining the national unity policy,” trial observers told Worthy News on Monday.
Russian authorities say at least 13 people were killed and 39 others wounded Monday in Ukrainian drone attacks on an industrial city about 900 kilometers, or 600 miles, east of Moscow. The latest strikes signaled a further escalation of Ukraine’s campaign of air attacks deep inside Russia.
A powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia Monday, collapsing buildings, trapping residents beneath rubble, disrupting airports and sending tremors across much of the country and into neighboring Venezuela.
Archaeologists in modern-day Turkey have uncovered remains of an ancient church believed to be connected to the historic site where the First Council of Nicaea was held in A.D. 325, drawing fresh attention to one of the most consequential turning points in the history of Christianity.
President Donald Trump’s sweeping “Make D.C. Safe Again” law-enforcement campaign is approaching its first anniversary with more than 16,000 arrests, as the administration says its unprecedented federal-local partnership is changing the security landscape of the nation’s capital.