Israel has issued an abrupt and highly unusual alert to its citizens traveling or working in Turkey, warning all Israelis to evacuate the capital Istanbul immediately. Officials have said intelligence reports suggest a possible Iranian kidnap or murder plot of its nationals potentially in progress.
“Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau has raised its alert level for Istanbul to the highest possible level, calling on any Israelis in the city to leave immediately or risk their lives,” The Times of Israel writes of the Monday warning. Israelis are further being advised to avoid travel in other parts of Turkey as well.
“After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate.” Ez 38:8 NIV
The heightened alert message came hours following Foreign Minister Yair Lapid informing a meeting of government ministers that there is a “real and immediate” threat to Israelis in Istanbul in particular, and Turkey in general.
A written statement from Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) said “Two weeks ago a travel warning to Turkey was raised, after defense officials raised fears of Iranian attempts to harm Israeli targets around the world, especially in Turkey.”
The latest raising of the alert level to a “4” means Israel has designated it’s “danger” level for Turkey as on par with Afghanistan, Iran, Burkina Fasco, or other official ‘enemy’ states or war-torn regions.
The NSC statement further said that “given the continued threat and Iranian intentions to hurt Israelis in Turkey, especially Istanbul, cranking up a notch” – to explain the heightened state of alert.
The new alert is being widely viewed as in relation to last month’s assassination of Revolutionary Guard colonel Sayad Khodai, which Tehran has blamed on Israeli intelligence and its agents inside Iran. The slain IRGC officer was reportedly a commander in the elite Quds Force, which is the foreign intelligence wing of the IRGC. Israeli media is claiming that he had “planned attacks on Jews and Israelis worldwide.”
Israeli officials say they’ve disrupted potential plots, arresting suspected “operatives”..
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