Turkey said on Saturday it was recalling its ambassador to Israel and cutting off contacts with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in protest at the bloodshed in Gaza. Ankara announced the decisions ahead of what promises to be a difficult visit to Turkey by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Palestinian ally Turkey was mending fractured relations with Israel until the Israel-Hamas war broke out last month. But her tone has hardened against both Israel and its Western backers, especially the United States, as fighting escalated and Palestinian civilian casualties rose. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Ambassador Sakir Ozkan Torunlar had been recalled for consultations "in view of the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Gaza caused by Israel's continued attacks on civilians and Israel's refusal (to accept) a ceasefire". Israeli forces surrounded Gaza's largest city as they sought to crush Hamas in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, which officials said killed about 1,400 people - mostly civilians - and took about 240 hostages. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says around 9,500 people - mostly women and children - have been killed since then in Israeli strikes and an intensifying ground campaign.
Turkish President Recep Erdogan separately told reporters that he held Netanyahu personally responsible for the rising number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip. "Netanyahu is no longer a person we can talk to. We have written him off," Turkish media quoted Erdogan as saying.
Israel earlier withdrew all diplomats from Turkey and other countries in the region as a security precaution. Israel's foreign ministry said last weekend it was "reassessing" relations with Ankara because of Turkey's increasingly heated rhetoric over Israel's war against Hamas. Erdogan added on Saturday that Turkey could not afford to completely cut off diplomatic contacts between the countries. "A complete severance of ties is not possible, especially in international diplomacy," Erdogan said. He said the head of the intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kallen, was leading Turkey's efforts to try to broker an end to the war. "Ibrahim Callan is talking with the Israeli side. Of course, he is also negotiating with Palestine and Hamas," Erdogan said. But he said Netanyahu bore the main responsibility for the violence and had "lost the support of his own citizens". "What he should do is take a step back and stop this," Erdogan said.
The Turkish leader took a much more cautious tone in the early days of the war. Israel and Turkey only last year agreed to re-appoint ambassadors after a decade of nearly frozen relations. They also resumed discussions on a US-backed gas pipeline project that could form the basis for much closer and more lasting cooperation in the coming years.
But Erdogan led a huge rally in Istanbul last weekend, during which he accused the Israeli government of behaving like a "war criminal" and trying to "eradicate" the Palestinians.
More protests will greet Blinken on Sunday when the top US diplomat begins a two-day visit to Ankara, marking the final leg of his Middle East tour. The humanitarian aid fund, whose attempts to organize a flotilla to Gaza in 2010 prompted Israeli attacks that killed 10 civilians, organized a protest march at a military base in southeastern Turkey that hosts US weapons and troops. The fund's convoy of vehicles is expected to reach Incirlik Air Base from Istanbul on Sunday. Blinken met with Arab counterparts in the Jordanian capital Amman on Saturday after visiting Israel the previous day. But he left Israel empty-handed after calling on its leaders to do more to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip. /BGNES
