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One attacker was killed, two others were wounded and two police officers were slightly injured in a shootout with police outside the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
According to Interior Minister Mustafa Siftasi, the armed attackers had ties to an activist group that “exploits religion”.
“The terrorists have been identified,” he wrote in a post translated by X.
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A plainclothes police officer holds a gun after receiving reports of shots fired near the Israeli Consulate building in Istanbul, Turkey, April 7, 2026. (Murad Sezer/Reuters)
US Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barack condemned the attack and praised Turkish officials.
“The United States condemns today’s attack on the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul in the strongest terms,” Barrack wrote on Twitter.
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Police officers took out their guns and took cover after gunfire continued for at least 10 minutes near a permanent security checkpoint near the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul. A man was seen lying in a pool of blood amid glass towers in the heart of the city’s main financial district.
Footage obtained by Reuters shows the attacker, wearing a black beret and carrying a backpack, walking among parked white police and security buses and firing with an automatic rifle and a handgun.
Two bodies were found lying on nearby roads and parking areas, near grassy areas.
Turkish police special forces stand guard near the Israeli Consulate building in Istanbul, Türkiye, after reports of shots fired on April 7, 2026. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)
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Istanbul Governor Davut Gul told reporters at the scene that two police officers were slightly injured in the attack.
He said there had been no Israeli diplomatic staff at the consulate for 2-1/2 years since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in 2023, leading to a deep deterioration in Turkish-Israeli diplomatic relations.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed that there were no staff at the consulate at the time of the shooting.
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The incident occurred just after noon, next to a major motorway, just outside the tower where the Israeli Consulate is located. The sound of gunfire echoed inside the nearby bank headquarters, where thousands of employees were leaving for lunch.
Turkey, a staunch critic of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, recalled its ambassador to Israel in November 2023 and diplomatic ties have been effectively frozen since then.
Turkish police special forces walk near the Israeli Consulate building in Istanbul, Türkiye after hearing gunshots on April 7, 2026. (Murad Sezer/Reuters)
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That same year, Israeli diplomats left Turkey due to security concerns after pro-Palestinian protests broke out across the country and in front of the consulate. Since then, there has been a heavily armed police presence in the area near the consulate.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
