 released on Wednesday.){kind=link}
Turkey was Israel’s fifth-largest supplier in 2024, with exports totaling $2.86 billion, according to the United Nations International Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) released on Wednesday.
This figure put Turkey behind only China, the United States, Germany and Italy despite the Turkish government’s official announcement of a full suspension of bilateral trade with Israel last year.
Israel’s total trade volume in 2024 amounted to $91.5 billion in imports and $61.7 billion in exports.
In May 2024 Turkey halted all direct trade with Israel in response to mounting domestic criticism of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
However, the Turkish government has faced protests and accusations for allegedly continuing trade with Israel while adopting a harsh anti-Israeli rhetoric, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeatedly accusing Israel of “genocidal behavior” and comparing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu administration’s actions to those seen in Nazi Germany.
When Al Jazeera published the UN Comtrade data on Thursday, showing Israel’s trade statistics that indicated Turkey as among the largest exporters, leading to a renewed debate about Turkey’s allegedly ongoing trade with Israel, the Turkish Ministry of Trade rejected claims in an official statement, describing the figures as “completely inaccurate.”
According to the ministry, total exports to Israel before the embargo, between January and April 2024, stood at $1.522 billion, a figure that it said also includes shipments to the Palestinian territories.
The ministry criticized what it described as “manipulative and misleading narratives” in both the domestic and international media, claiming that such reports aim to “undermine Turkey’s firm stance against Israel’s aggression and distort public perception.”
It said Turkey had voluntarily given up a $7 billion export volume out of a total $9.5 billion trade relationship recorded with Israel in 2022 as part of a principled response to what it called Israel’s “genocidal acts” in Gaza.
Despite the ministry’s denial, reports from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) and the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) show that Turkey’s trade with Israel was redirected via third countries, circumventing the official trade ban.
One significant rerouting path involves Greece, where Turkish exports rose sharply, by 71 percent in May 2024 compared to the same month of 2023, reaching $375 million.
Goods were re-exported from Greek ports to Israel without the need to alter certificates of origin, allowing them to retain their Turkish classification.
Another channel involves the Palestinian territories. Turkish exports to Palestine increased by 423 percent during the first eight months of 2024.
In many cases Palestine was listed as the final destination on shipping documents, but goods arrived at Israeli ports such as Ashdod and were then transferred to Israeli buyers with assistance from Palestinian intermediaries.
Some Israeli companies reportedly established entities under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority to facilitate these transactions.
In addition a report by the Stop Fueling Genocide campaign revealed that 10 crude oil shipments were made from Turkey to Israel in 2024, violating Ankara’s announced embargo. The shipments, tracked via satellite imagery and shipping data, reportedly included Azeri crude oil transported through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, a key source of Israel’s crude imports.
Activists argue that crude oil refined in Israel contributes to fueling its military equipment.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that resulted in the death of 1,206 people and the taking of some 250 hostages.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, the Israeli military has killed at least 53,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 122,000 since October 7, 2023.
A report released by Amnesty International on December 5 concludes that Israel’s actions in Gaza qualify as genocide.