Three people have been killed and two police officers injured in a gunfire incident \u2060near the building housing the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, according to Turkish media reports.<\/p>\n
Three people involved in the gun battle that erupted on Tuesday have been \u201celiminated\u201d by Turkish police, said Al Jazeera\u2019s Sinem Koseoglu. Israel and Turkiye have both declared the incident a \u201cterror\u201d attack.<\/p>\n
The Reuters news agency video showed a police officer pulling out a gun and taking cover as gunshots resounded. One person \u2060was seen covered in \u2060blood.<\/p>\n
The area where the consulate building is located, meanwhile, is densely populated and houses many businesses, including international ones, with \u201cthousands\u201d of people working nearby, said Koseoglu.<\/p>\n
The Israeli consulate is on the seventh floor of one tall building in the area, she added, noting this is in the Yapi Kredi Plaza on Buyukdere Street in Istanbul\u2019s Besiktas district.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe eyewitness that I spoke to \u2026 he was just smoking with his colleague, and three people came in a car, tried to open gunfire, and then the security fired back,\u201d said Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear if the intended target was the Israeli consulate.<\/p>\n
There are no Israeli diplomats serving in the consulate building in Istanbul, and no Israeli diplomats in the Israeli embassy in the Turkish capital of Ankara, \u201cwhich means the employees who are inside those diplomatic missions are mostly the locals who are working for the consulate or embassy\u201d, Koseoglu added.<\/p>\n
However, Israel and Turkiye both swiftly condemned the incident, branding it \u201cterror\u201d related.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate the Turkish security forces\u2019 swift action in thwarting this attack. Israeli missions around the world have been subjected to countless threats and terrorist attacks. Terror will not deter us,\u201d Israel\u2019s Foreign Ministry said in a post on social media.<\/p>\n
Exploiting religion<\/h2>\n
Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said the attackers \u2013 who arrived from Izmit, a city about 100km (62 miles) east of Istanbul, in a rental car \u2013 had been identified.<\/p>\n
He noted that \u201cone had links to an organisation that exploits religion\u201d. Turkish media speculated that this was a reference to ISIL (ISIS).<\/p>\n
The ministry later stated that the gunman who was killed \u201chad connections with a terrorist group\u201d.<\/p>\n
Istanbul Governor Davut Gul described the incident as a \u201cprovocative act\u201d.<\/p>\n
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan labelled it as a \u201ctreacherous attack\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue our fight against all kinds of terrorism, and we will not allow \u2026 provocations to harm Turkiye\u2019s climate of security,\u201d he said in a televised speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttacks on diplomatic missions are attacks on the international order \u2013 and an assault on the principles that bind nations together,\u201d said Tom Barrack, United States ambassador to Turkiye.<\/p>\n
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said an investigation has been launched into the incident.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s incident is \u201csignificant\u201d due to the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, said Mehmet Celik, the editorial coordinator at the Daily Sabah newspaper, noting that the conflict has embroiled much of the region.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very sensitive matter, given the situation in the region and, of course, the rising sentiment against Israel, be it through the Iran war, be it through the Gaza situation, or Lebanon or elsewhere in the region,\u201d Celik told Al Jazeera, speaking from Istanbul.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the motivation behind the attack could be to \u201cdamage Turkiye\u2019s prestige\u201d, which has been seen as a \u201csafe and stable place in the region\u201d amid the war, Celik said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen an attack like this happens, the first thing that comes to my mind is \u2026 who does this attack benefit? And it is definitely not, of course, Turkiye,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A second motive for the attackers could be to drag Turkiye into the ongoing regional conflict, and a third motive could be to damage Istanbul\u2019s reputation as a diplomatic mediator city, given that many mediation efforts have taken place there, the journalist added.<\/p>\n Still, Celik argued that Tuesday\u2019s attack should be seen as separate from Turkiye\u2019s past history, as it is currently going through a \u201cterror-free\u201d period, an attempt to \u201cminimise the effect of terrorism within Turkiye as well as in the wider region\u201d, he said, referring to the recent disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) and changes in neighbouring Syria.<\/p>\n Three people have been killed and two police officers injured in a gunfire incident \u2060near the building housing the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, according to Turkish media reports. Three people involved in the gun battle that erupted on Tuesday have been \u201celiminated\u201d by Turkish police, said Al Jazeera\u2019s Sinem Koseoglu. Israel and Turkiye have both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"TOPSHOT](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/afp_69d4e53a3508-1775559994.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
The attackers\u2019 motive<\/h2>\n
![\"TOPSHOT](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/afp_69d4e55f4998-1775560031.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"