MV Mavi Marmara

A Turkish warship docked in Israel over the weekend for the first time since 2010, amid improving ties between the two countries, officials and witnesses said on Sept. 4. 

The TCG Kemalreis frigate was docked Sunday in the northern port of Haifa, headquarters of the Israeli navy, AFP reporters said.

A Turkish court has ordered that a man, who was taken by Israeli soldiers from the Mavi Marmara ship and ill-treated in prison, should be paid 150,000 Turkish Liras ($11, 200) in compensation.

Nine Turkish citizens died when Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara ship, which was trying to break the embargo on Gaza in 2010. One more died in hospital in 2014.

A decade after the Mavi Marmara incident Talib & the Melbourne-based company he owns were designated by the US Treasury for providing assistance to al-Qaeda

Kemal Gümüş, a journalist for the Turkish daily Star, said on Nov. 23 that he was deported from Israel on grounds that he was among the passengers of the Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza in 2010 which was raided by Israeli forces.

Trade ties between Turkey and Israel increased even during times of diplomatic tension, and a developing diamond business is contributing hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars to this trade, according to Shai Cohen, Israel's outgoing consul general to Istanbul.

The Turkish government has delivered the necessary compensation to the families of the victims of Israel's 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla, Finance Minister Naci Ağbal said on June 23, after controversy over delayed payments.

A man arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist act on Thursday, carrying knives near Prime Minister Theresa May’s office, was on a ship raided by Israeli soldiers in 2010, sources familiar with the investigation have told Reuters.

Turkey has seen a boost in the number of Israeli tourists following the normalization of ties last summer, according to the owner of a tour company in the Aegean province of Muğla, which is home to popular holiday resorts Bodrum and Marmaris.      

The trilateral Noble Dina exercise between the American, Israeli and Hellenic navies will begin later this month, with nearly a dozen surface ships, submarines and related air assets scheduled to engage in joint reconnaissance, counterterror and antisubmarine warfare training.

Turkey and Israel should begin focusing on practical issues as they repair their relationship following a six-year hiatus due to the Mavi Marmara massacre, Israel's parliamentary speaker has said, adding that focusing on issues that divide the two nations at the outset would lead nowhere.