ANKARA, 26 December, 2020, (TON): President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would like to have better ties with Israel, but criticised Israeli policy toward Palestinians as “unacceptable” and a “red line” for Ankara.

Turkey and Israel, once allies, have had a bitter falling out in recent years. Ankara has repeatedly condemned Israel’s occupation in the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians. It has also criticised recent U.S.-brokered rapprochements between Israel and four Muslim countries.

Speaking to reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Erdogan said “The Palestine policy is our red line. It is impossible for us to accept Israel’s Palestine policies. Their merciless acts there are unacceptable.”

“If there were no issues at the top level (in Israel), our ties could have been very different,” he said, adding that the two countries continued to share intelligence. “We would have liked to bring our ties to a better point.”

Over the past decade Israel-Turkey relations have been strained. Turkey and Israel expelled each other’s ambassadors in 2018 after Israeli forces killed dozens of Palestinians in clashes on the Gaza border. In August this year, Israel accused Turkey of giving passports to a dozen Hamas members in Istanbul, describing the move as “a very unfriendly step”.

Turkey has changed greatly over the past two decades, becoming richer and more self-confident, no longer dependent on Washington or Brussels.