Turkey’s decision to suspend trade with Israel underscores the rising global pressure to wind down the war in Gaza, even as Israel’s leaders insist that they will not end the campaign until Hamas’s rule in the enclave has been eradicated.
Israel’s international isolation has mounted as its devastating military offensive in Gaza continues with little end in sight. Some countries have downgraded or cut ties with Israel. Close partners such as the United States, Britain and Germany, while still remaining strongly supportive of Israel, have become more openly critical of its conduct and of restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza.
On Wednesday, Colombia became the latest Latin American country to break ties with Israel, following Bolivia and Belize early in the war. Arab states like Jordan and Bahrain, with whom Israel cooperates closely on security, recalled their ambassadors amid public outcry over the rising death toll.
The Biden administration, Israel’s most important ally, has shown no sign of pulling back military support, even as it warns against an Israeli invasion of Rafah, in southern Gaza, where more than a million people are sheltering. And Israel won a reprieve this week when a United Nations court declined to order Germany, Israel’s second-biggest supplier of weapons, after the United States, to suspend those arms sales.
Still, the moves by Turkey and others highlight how the war in Gaza, now nearly seven months old, is exacting a growing toll on Israel’s global standing.