Turkey imposes trade restrictions on Israel until Gaza cease-fire
Turkey said Tuesday it is imposing trade restrictions on Israel affecting a range of products until Israel declares a cease-fire in Gaza.
The restrictions include trade in 54 categories, including iron, steel, cement, aviation fuel and fertilizer.
The move comes a day after Israel blocked a Turkish request to carry out an airdrop of aid to Gaza. Multiple countries have conducted aid drops to try to counter what humanitarian organizations have said is a lack of adequate access to bring in badly needed aid through land crossings.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz pledged to respond with parallel measures against Turkey, saying Israel will not respond to "violence and extortion."
Katz posted on X that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is sacrificing "the economic interest of Turkey's people for the sake of his support of Hamas murderers in Gaza."
Following cease-fire talks in Cairo that included U.S., Israeli, Hamas and Qatari officials, the Hamas militant group was considering the latest proposal for a halt in fighting coupled with the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Negotiators in Egypt for new round of Gaza cease-fire talks
The proposal calls for a six-week cease-fire, the release of some of the hostages in Gaza, Israel freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, an increase in humanitarian aid arriving in Gaza, and the return of displaced Palestinians to the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he received a detailed report on the Cairo talks.
"We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas," Netanyahu said. 'This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen. There is a date."
The U.S. immediately rebuked Netanyahu. A Pentagon spokeswoman said, 'We've been very clear that we don't support operations into Rafah.'
'We want to see a credible plan for how they would conduct any operations there' given 'substantial' humanitarian concerns about more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there, said deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh. "We have not seen their official plan put forward.'
Netanyahu: Date set for Rafah attack, which US opposes
The White House characterized the negotiations as "serious."
'Where we are now is that a proposal has been presented to Hamas, and we are waiting on Hamas' response,' National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. 'Now it's going to be up to Hamas to come through.'
Kirby declined to discuss the specifics of the proposed deal, adding 'that would be one of the surest ways to torpedo that.'
The back-and-forth of negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage release coupled with the threat of extended warfare came days after U.S. President Joe Biden warned Netanyahu of the possibility of a change in U.S. support for the Israeli war effort.
Biden demanded that Israel immediately allow more humanitarian aid into the beleaguered war zone to assist famished Palestinians and empower its negotiators to reach an immediate cease-fire.
FILE - A person looks at a vehicle where employees from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Apr. 2, 2024.
Biden's demands came after an Israeli airstrike killed seven international aid workers trying to deliver food to Gaza.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin further enforced the message in a phone call Monday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Pentagon said.
Austin discussed the need to "dramatically increase humanitarian assistance delivery to Gaza," as well as the Israeli military's investigation into the strike that killed the workers from aid group World Central Kitchen.
"Minister Gallant provided details about the IDF's withdrawal from portions of Gaza and the future of Israel's campaign against Hamas," Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. "Secretary Austin voiced his commitment to supporting the unconditional return of all hostages and expressed hope that ongoing negotiations would produce a pause in hostilities."
Bodies of foreign aid workers killed in Israeli airstrike moved toward repatriation
Kirby said that on Sunday, 'We saw more than 300 [humanitarian aid] trucks enter Gaza, and that's progress. But obviously, we need to see this number increase, and we need to see it sustained to really address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.'
Israeli officials are also due to visit the White House in coming days to hear U.S. concerns over the possible Israeli offensive on Rafah.
'We don't support a major ground operation in Rafah,' Kirby said. "We also don't see any sign that such a major ground operation is imminent, or that these troops [moved out of Khan Younis] are being repositioned for that kind of a ground operation.'
Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages in Gaza, among the 250 or so it captured in its shock October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people.
As of mid-February, 112 hostages had been freed, most during a weeklong cease-fire in November, while 36 more are believed to have died or been killed in Gaza during the six months of fighting.
Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry says Israel's counteroffensive has killed more than 33,000 people, two-thirds of them women and children. The Israeli military says the total includes thousands of militants it has killed.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
