A 34-year-old Turkish man was shot to death by Israeli police in Jerusalem after he attacked a police officer with a knife, slightly wounding him, Israeli and international news outlets reported.
The Israeli police said in a statement that “A terrorist armed with a knife arrived in the Old City of Jerusalem … charged at the border police officer and stabbed him,” identifying him as Turkish national Hasan Saklanan. His ID shows he is from the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. He was visiting the area as a tourist and was permitted to stay until Thursday.
Independent Turkish’s editor Nevzat Çiçek said on X that Saklanan went to Jerusalem on a tour but did not accompany the group’s other members on Tuesday, claiming that he was sick.
The wounded police officer, taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem by ambulance, was conscious and in “moderate” condition.
An investigation has been launched into the incident by the Israeli police.
The Times of Israel said it is extremely rare for a foreign national to carry out an attack in Israel, with no such incidents taking place in recent history.
Anti-Israeli sentiment is running high among Turks over the scale of death and destruction in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
More than 34,000 people have been killed in Israeli retaliatory attacks on Gaza since October 7, when Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack on the south of Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostage.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is one of the most outspoken critics of the Israeli government, accusing it of committing “war crimes” and a “genocide” in Gaza while he refuses to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization, unlike many of Turkey’s Western allies, and calls them “liberators” fighting for their land.
