Israel praises Turkey for averting terror attacks

Israel commended Turkey for the close cooperation in thwarting terror attemps against Israelis, said Yair Lapid, the prime minister of Israel, in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the occasion of Eid al Adha.

The Israeli intelligence agency in coordination with Turkish authorities averted three Iranian attacks in Istanbul targeting Israeli civilians, Times of Israel reported last month citing security officials, after Jerusalem imposed a travel warning against its citizens flying to Turkey claiming that Iran was seeking to carry out attacks against Israeli tourists in the country.

Iran rejected the allegations of a Tehran-directed plot and dismissed Israeli government’s warnings as nonsensical.

Israel still keeps the terror warning in place, but Yair Lapid said last month during a visit to Ankara that they were aiming to lower the Israeli travel warning before the peak summer travel season. 

Turkey is a top destination for Iraeli tourists but official statistics show that less than a hundred thousand Israelis came to Turkey this year whereas the number of Israeli tourists in 2019 was almost 600 thousand.