An Israeli cabinet minister said that the Jewish state ought to change its policy and recognize the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as an act of Genocide, Reuters reported.

Gilad Erdan, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, answered a motion in parliament by opposition lawmakers marking the massacre's anniversary.

"I think it is definitely fitting that the Israeli government formally recognize the Holocaust perpetrated against the Armenian people," Erdan, Israel's environmental affairs minister said.

Israel has long avoided acknowledging the mass killings of Armenians as Genocide, in deference to already strained ties with Turkey which rejects that view.

Relations with Turkey have been tense since the 2010 killings of nine Turkish activists in a commando raid on a Gaza-bound ship. Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel after that incident and suspended military cooperation.

Erdan said the Israeli government had not formally changed its policy on the Armenian's past tragedy, adding: "we should definitely support holding an open and in depth discussion that analyses the data and facts."