A ‘religious terrorist’ gunman was killed, and two others were left wounded during a ten-minute shooting attack outside the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul.
According to Turkey’s interior ministry, three gunmen affiliated with ‘a terror group’ were involved in the attack. The remaining two were ‘neutralised’.
The interior ministry said in a statement on X that Yunus E.S. ‘was captured dead’ and ‘had connections with a terrorist group that exploits religion’. It identifies the two injured attackers as Onur Ç and Enes Ç – who it says are brothers.
Governor Davut Gul confirmed the dead gunman’s killing during the attack that took place at around 12.15pm – just hours before US President Donald Trump’s looming deadline for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz is set to expire.
The attackers had used rifles and pistols in the assault, which occurred immediately outside a tower where the Israeli consulate is located in Istanbul’s financial district.
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 55 miles southeast of Istanbul.
Two police officers were also left wounded in the shooting. Their injuries are not life-threatening, with one shot in the leg and the other in the ear.
In a statement, Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said: ‘Three individuals who engaged in an armed clash with our police officers on duty in front of the Yapı Kredi Plaza Blocks in Istanbul have been neutralised.
‘Two of our heroic police officers were slightly injured in the clash. The identities of the terrorists have been determined.
‘It has been established that one of the individuals, who came to Istanbul from Izmit in a rented vehicle, has links to an organisation that exploits religion; and that one of the two terrorists, who are brothers, has a drug-related record.’
In dramatic footage of the scenes, an apparent attacker is seen moving among parked white police and security buses and firing for several minutes with an automatic rifle and handgun.
Two bodies are seen lying on nearby streets and grassy areas.
Police officers could be seen pulling out guns and taking cover as shots rang out for at least 10 minutes. One person was covered in blood.
Since the Hamas-Israel war began in 2023, a heavily armed police presence has been maintained in the area near the Israeli consulate.
The area where the consulate building is located is densely populated and houses several businesses, including international ones, with ‘thousands’ of people working nearby.
The Israeli consulate is on the seventh floor of one of the taller buildings in the area.
The city’s governor, Davut Gul, added that there have been no Israeli diplomatic staff at the consulate for two-and-a-half years.
‘The eyewitness that I spoke to… he was just smoking with his colleague, and three people came in a car, tried to open a gunfire, and then the security fired them back,’ said Sinem Koseoglu, a reporter in Istanbul.
The Istanbul public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on X.
The ministry also confirmed that the two police officers who were shot in Tuesday’s attack were ‘slightly injured.’
A large police presence was deployed in front of the consulate, where bloodstains were seen on the ground in an adjacent parking lot.
The immediate vicinity of the consulate is inaccessible even under normal circumstances, as the area is cordoned off by police barriers.
Footage aired by the private NTV television showed police officers opening fire near a busy thoroughfare, as well as an injured person being carried away on a stretcher.
‘The United States condemns in the strongest terms today’s attack on the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul,’ US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said on X.
‘Attacks on diplomatic missions are attacks on the international order – and an assault on the principles that bind nations together,’ he added, while commending Turkey and Turkish security forces for ‘their swift and decisive response’.
Turkish officials would not immediately reveal the group the attacker was linked to but Turkish media said it could be the IS group.
IS militants opened fire on police in Yalova in December, killing three officers and wounding nine others.
Turkish police have stepped up nationwide raids against IS militants, rounding up 125 suspects shortly after that attack.
IS has carried out other deadly attacks in Turkey, including one at a nightclub in Istanbul that killed 39 people in 2017.
The attack came several hours before the deadline for Trump’s deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
However, Iranian state-linked media is reporting on a statement from the Revolutionary Guard, in which it said that it will not hesitate to respond in kind if the US attacks civilian facilities.
The US president said he will strike Iranian power plants and bridges in mere hours if Iran does not agree to open the Strait of Hormuz.
‘We will do to the infrastructure of America and its partners what will deprive them and their allies of the region’s oil and gas for many years’, the statement reads.
‘American leaders lack the ability to calculate the critical assets that would be within range of our fighters if they attacked our infrastructure’, it added.
‘Our response will extend beyond the region if the US military crosses our red lines’.
