Making Up: A Timeline of Israel-Turkey Relations

Israel was a longtime regional ally of Turkey until its 2010 commando raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla left 10 Turkish activists dead.

Relations between the two countries plunged into bitter acrimony, but both sides hope to put the past behind them with a deal reached on Sunday.

Here are the key ups and downs since 2010:

- Flotilla raid triggers crisis -

May 31, 2010: Israeli commandos stage a botched pre-dawn raid on a six-ship aid flotilla trying to reached the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in defiance of a naval blockade.

Nine Turkish activists are killed onboard the Mavi Mamara ferry; a tenth dies after years in a coma.

The violence prompts an international outcry, with Ankara recalling its ambassador from Tel Aviv.

June 4: Turkey says it will reduce economic and defense ties with Israel.

July 2: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will never apologize for the raid. Three days later, Turkey says it will sever diplomatic ties with Israel unless it apologizes, and closes its airspace to all Israeli military flights.

January 23, 2011: An Israeli probe finds the naval blockade of Gaza and Israel's flotilla raid conform with international law. But the next month, a Turkish inquiry concludes that Israel used "excessive" force and trampled on international law.

September 1: A UN-mandated inquiry says Israel's action was "excessive" but finds that the naval blockade on Gaza is legal.

September 2: Turkey rejects the UN report as "null and void." It expels the Israeli ambassador, suspends all military ties and goes to the International Court of Justice.

September 19: Israel ends police cooperation with Turkey.

- Obama urges thaw -

September 20, 2011: US President Barack Obama calls on Turkey and Israel, both allies of Washington, to mend ties.

April 23, 2012: Turkey blocks Israel's attendance at a May NATO summit.

June 13: Israel's state watchdog criticizes Netanyahu over his handling of the raid.

November 6: An Istanbul court opens a trial in absentia of four former Israeli military commanders over the deadly raid. Israel denounces it as a "show trial".

November 20: Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- then Turkey's prime minister, now its president -- denounces Israel as a "terrorist state", accusing it of "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza.

- Israeli apology -

March 22, 2013: Under pressure from Obama, Netanyahu apologizes to Turkey for the flotilla raid and announces compensation for the families of those killed. Erdogan accepts the apology and a month later, talks open on compensation.

July 31, 2014: Erdogan nonetheless keeps up the furious rhetoric, accusing Israel of "keeping Hitler's spirit alive" over a major summer offensive in Gaza.

- Towards a thaw -

December 14, 2014: Erdogan signals a softening in his position, saying: "We, Israel and the Palestinians and the region have a lot to win from a normalization process."

Three days later, an Israeli official says the two nations have reached "understandings" to normalize ties in secret talks in Switzerland.

More talks are held in Geneva in February 2015 and London in April 2016.

- Normalization deal reached -

June 26: A deal is reached between the two sides in Rome.

June 27: The two nations' prime ministers hail the agreement, which will see the Gaza blockade remain in place but allow Turkey to deliver aid to Palestinians there via Israel's Ashdod port.