Israel's Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal on Sunday to designate violence against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide.
The step still needs approval in Parliament and reflects deteriorating ties between Israel and Turkey.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who brought the decision to the government, said, "Despite the extensive and unambiguous historical documentation, the Armenian Genocide remains to this day the subject of an institutionalized campaign of denial and minimization, including a manipulative rewriting of history, mainly by the Turkish government."
Saar said, "It is never too late to do the right thing," and called the recognition a "moral and historical duty."
He noted that Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have previously described the violence against Armenians as a genocide, but it has never been formally recognized in a vote by Israel's Knesset.
For years Israel did not officially broach the subject for fear of angering Turkey.
Relations soured during the rise of Turkey's Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leading Israel to reconsider its position.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I; Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
Saar noted that 32 countries, including the United States, Syria and Lebanon, have also classified the violence as a genocide. It was not immediately known when Sunday's decision would go to the parliament for approval, and there was no immediate reaction from Turkey.
Israel has faced repeated accusations, including from the United Nations and Turkey, that its offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide; Israel, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, denies the accusations.
Israel launched the war in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and Gaza's Health Ministry, part of the Hamas government, says over 73,000 people have been killed, roughly half of them women and children. Last week a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations accused Israel of deliberately shooting children and repeated accusations that Israel has carried out a genocide; Israel called the report a "libelous sham." Israel says it does not target civilians and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.