Tuesday April 7, 2026
Gunfire erupted near the building that houses the Israeli consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday, leaving three people dead and two police officers injured, according to Turkish media reports.
Video from Reuters showed an officer drawing a weapon and rushing for cover as shots rang out. In the footage, one person could be seen lying covered in blood.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Sinem Koseoglu said Turkish police had “eliminated” three people who were involved in the shooting.
Koseoglu said the area around the consulate is a busy, densely populated district filled with businesses, including international companies, and that “thousands” of people work nearby.
She added that the Israeli consulate occupies the seventh floor of a high-rise in the area.
“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,” Koseoglu said while reporting from Istanbul.
Koseoglu also noted that no Israeli diplomats are stationed at the consulate building in Istanbul or at the Israeli embassy in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, “which means the employees who are inside those diplomatic missions are mostly the locals who are working for the consulate or embassy”.
Authorities have not yet released any information on the identity of the attackers or what may have motivated the shooting.
This is a developing news story.
