A violent shootout near the Israeli consulate in Istanbul’s upscale Besiktas district left one attacker dead and four people wounded on Tuesday, according to senior Turkish local and national officials. The targeted attack, which unfolded in one of the city’s busiest commercial hubs, sparked a large-scale emergency response that closed off the surrounding Levent neighborhood to civilian traffic.
Istanbul Governor Davut Gul confirmed to on-site reporters that the assailants specifically targeted police officers deployed to the area for routine security duty. All injured individuals, including the two wounded officers, are reported to have only sustained minor injuries in the exchange of gunfire.
Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci later shared new details about the assailants via the social media platform X. He confirmed the group traveled to Istanbul from the northwestern city of Izmit using a rented vehicle. Official records show one of the two brother assailants classified as terrorists has a prior drug-related conviction, and one of the suspects has documented ties to a religiously exploited extremist organization, Ciftci added.
Initial reporting from local Turkish broadcaster NTV differed slightly in its casualty count, stating security forces had “neutralized” two suspects and left a third critically injured. Regardless of the discrepancy in early counts, footage aired by NTV showed the immediate aftermath of the incident: dozens of heavily armed police units and emergency ambulances flooded the area, establishing a full security cordon around the site of the shooting amid heightened security alerts across the city.