Video footage captured a police officer drawing his weapon and taking cover as gunshots echoed through the area. One person was killed and two others were wounded in the firefight with police outside the tower building.
đ´ #CANLI Ä°SRAÄ°L KONSOLOSLUÄU ĂNĂNDE ĂATIĹMA https://t.co/4p4kqFvVcJ
â CNN TĂRK (@cnnturk) April 7, 2026
During a prolonged shootout with police near the Israeli consulate in Istanbul’s central financial district, one of the attackers died and two others sustained injuries. The consulate is located in a tower building in the area.
Ten people in total have been taken into custody. The two injured attackers are being held and questioned at the hospital while receiving medical care, according to state-run news agency Anadolu. The remaining eight suspects were apprehended through operations carried out in Istanbul and the neighboring province of Kocaeli.
The interior ministry offered no statement on the arrests, and neither Istanbul police nor the prosecutor’s office responded to requests for comment.
Officials have yet to publicly establish a motive, and the investigation remains active. U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack posted on X, describing it as an attack on the Israeli consulate and expressing condemnation.
Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci stated that the three attackers had connections to an organization that “misuses religion,” though he provided no further details. He also noted that two of them were brothers who had driven to the scene from the city of Izmit in a rental car.
The attacker who died at the scene was named as Yunus Emre Sarban, according to a source within the interior ministry. Government records show that Sarban had previously been connected to financial networks associated with the Islamic State, which resulted in his assets being frozen back in 2021.
