JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel has appointed an ambassador to Turkey, its first since both countries recalled their envoys five years ago amid a spat over a deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish vessel trying to reach Gaza.
The foreign ministry named Eitan Naeh as envoy to Ankara on Tuesday.
The return of ambassadors is part of a reconciliation deal that Israel and Turkey struck earlier this year, ending six years of animosity between the once-close allies.
Israeli-Turkish ties began to decline after Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose party has roots in Turkey’s Islamist movement, became prime minister in 2003. Relations imploded in 2010 after an Israeli naval raid killed 10 Turks. Ambassadors were recalled a year later.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power there.
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