An armed man was killed and two others were wounded during a shootout with the police near the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday, officials said.
The men arrived by car bearing pistols and long-range rifles, according to Istanbul’s provincial governor, Davut Gul. He added that the men had clashed with police officers outside the commercial tower that houses the consulate.
The clash took place around lunchtime in an important business district in the Levent neighborhood on Istanbul’s European side, next to a major highway and inside a complex named after one of Turkey’s largest banks.
Videos from the scene showed police officers seeking cover behind buses and walking along the driveway outside the building with their guns drawn while intermittent gunfire rang out.
Both Mr. Gul and the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that there were no diplomats in the consulate at the time of the attack.
Mustafa Ciftci, the Turkish interior minister, wrote on social media that two police officers had been injured in the clash. He said that the attackers, whom he called “terrorists,” had been identified. The one who was killed, he said, was affiliated with an Islamist extremist organization, which he did not name. He said the two others were brothers and were being interrogated.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkey would not allow the “vile” attack “to harm Turkey’s climate of safety.”
“We will continue our struggle against every kind of terror with determination,” he said.
Turkey has suffered attacks over the years by jihadists from the Islamic State. A police raid on an Islamic State safe house in December led to clashes that killed three police officers and six militants.
Relations between Turkey and Israel have been acrimonious in recent years.
Turkish officials staunchly criticized Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, regularly calling it a genocide, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, once comparing him to Hitler.
Israeli officials have accused Turkey of supporting Hamas and called the country a threat to regional stability.
Turkey and Israel have not formally severed diplomatic relations, although diplomatic contacts have been drastically scaled back. Last August, the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, announced that Turkey was cutting off all trade with Israel, including barring Israeli ships from Turkish ports.
Turkey has also criticized the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and is involved in diplomatic efforts to reach a cease-fire.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that Israel appreciated “the Turkish security forces’ swift action” in thwarting the attack near its consulate.
Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, also praised Turkey’s security forces and condemned the attack in a post on social media.
Ben Hubbard is the Istanbul bureau chief, covering Turkey and the surrounding region.
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