A gunman was killed and two others wounded in a shootout Tuesday with police outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, the local governor said, adding that two officers were lightly wounded.
Istanbul Governor Davut Gul told reporters there had been no Israeli diplomatic staff at the consulate for 2-1/2 years, ever since the Hamas-Israel war began in 2023 and led to a chill in Turkish-Israeli diplomatic ties.
The Israeli foreign ministry confirmed there were no staff at the consulate at the time of the shootings.
Officials have identified the assailants, saying that the gunman who was killed was affiliated with “a terror group”.
The interior ministry said Yunus E.S. “was captured dead” and “had connections with a terrorist group that exploits religion”.
Two of the assailants in Tuesday’s shootout were brothers and one has a drug record, the minister said.
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Turkish officials would not immediately reveal the group the attacker was linked to but Turkish media said it could be the Islamic State group, whose members clashed with Turkish police in Yalova – which lies on the shores of the Sea of Marmara about 90 kilometres (55 miles) southeast of Istanbul. IS group militants opened fire on police in Yalova in December, killing three officers and wounding nine others.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)