Turkey was Israel’s fifth-largest source of imports in 2024, exporting goods worth $2.86 billion despite an official suspension of trade declared by Ankara last year, according to data released by the United Nations International Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) on Wednesday.
The figure places Turkey behind only China, the United States, Germany, and Italy among Israel’s top import partners, and has sparked renewed scrutiny over the Erdoğan government’s trade policy amid ongoing Israeli military operations in Gaza.
In May 2024, Turkey announced a full suspension of direct trade with Israel following mounting public criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has since intensified his condemnation of the Israeli government, accusing it of committing genocide and likening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies to those of Nazi Germany.
However, the newly released UN data appears to contradict Ankara’s public stance, showing a significant level of Turkish exports to Israel during the year. The Turkish Ministry of Trade responded by rejecting the figures as “completely inaccurate,” stating that exports to Israel between January and April 2024 amounted to $1.522 billion and included shipments designated for the Palestinian territories.
In a written statement, the ministry claimed Turkey had voluntarily forfeited a $7 billion annual export volume as part of a principled reaction to Israel’s military campaign. It further criticized what it called “manipulative and misleading narratives” in the media, which it accused of distorting Turkey’s position and attempting to undermine its credibility.
Despite these denials, independent figures from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) and Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) suggest that Turkish goods continued to reach Israel throughout 2024, primarily through third countries.
One notable route was via Greece, where Turkish exports rose 71 percent in May 2024 compared to the same month in 2023, reaching $375 million. According to trade analysts, goods shipped to Greek ports were re-exported to Israel without changes to their certificates of origin, thereby maintaining their classification as Turkish products.
A second conduit involved the Palestinian territories, where Turkish exports increased by 423 percent in the first eight months of the year. In many cases, documentation listed Palestine as the final destination, while shipments were received at Israeli ports such as Ashdod and redirected to Israeli buyers via Palestinian intermediaries. Reports also indicate that some Israeli firms created front companies under the Palestinian Authority to facilitate these transactions.
In a separate development, the campaign group Stop Fueling Genocide reported that at least 10 crude oil shipments were made from Turkey to Israel during 2024, in violation of the stated embargo. The shipments, traced through satellite imagery and maritime tracking data, reportedly carried Azeri crude transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline—a major supplier of Israel’s oil.
Activists argue that such shipments indirectly support Israel’s military capabilities, as refined fuels are used to power equipment deployed in Gaza.
Israel launched its current military campaign following a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, in which 1,206 people were killed and approximately 250 others taken hostage. Since then, Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed at least 53,000 Palestinians and injured over 122,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
On December 5, Amnesty International published a report concluding that Israel’s conduct in Gaza amounts to genocide under international law.
The trade revelations have reignited domestic and international criticism of the Turkish government, with opposition figures and rights activists accusing it of pursuing a duplicitous policy—condemning Israel in public while continuing economic engagement behind the scenes.
