Turkey bars Israeli ships from its ports, restricts airspace

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey has decided to bar Israeli vessels from using its ports, forbid Turkish ships from using Israeli ports and impose restrictions on some planes entering Turkish airspace, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday.

He provided few details in comments to parliament which appeared to summarise steps that Turkey has already taken against Israel over the war in Gaza or has started to implement.

Turkey has fiercely criticised Israel's offensive in Gaza and accuses it of committing genocide in the Palestinian enclave, a charge that Israel denies. Ankara has halted all trade with Israel, called for international measures against it and urged world powers to stop supporting Israel.

Sources told Reuters last week that Turkish port authorities had also started informally requiring shipping agents to provide letters declaring that vessels are not linked to Israel and not carrying military or hazardous cargo bound for the country.

A source had also said that Turkish-flagged ships would be prohibited from calling at Israeli ports.

"We have totally cut our trade with Israel, we have closed off our ports to Israeli ships and we are not allowing Turkish vessels to go to Israel's ports," Fidan told an extraordinary parliamentary session on Israel's attacks on Gaza.

"We are not allowing container ships carrying weapons and ammunition to Israel to enter our ports, and airplanes to go into our airspace," he added, without giving details.

A Turkish diplomatic source later clarified that Fidan meant Israeli government flights and flights carrying weapons to Israel.

"The minister's comments refer to official Israeli flights and flights carrying weapons or ammunition to Israel. This does not apply to transit commercial flights," the source said.

Fidan also said Turkey had presidential approval to carry out air drops of aid to Gaza.

"Our planes are ready, once Jordan gives its approval, we will be in a position to go," he told lawmakers.

The Israeli government did not immediately comment on his remarks.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Ros Russell and Nick Zieminski)