JERUSALEM (JTA) — A man armed with a knife was shot by a local security guard as he attempted to enter the Israeli Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.
“The staff is safe. The attacker was wounded before he reached the embassy,” an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a text message following the attempted attack on Wednesday afternoon, Reuters reported.
Embassy staff reportedly had been sent to the building’s bomb shelter as a security measure.
The Turkish media had reported initially that one person was killed in the thwarted attack. The guard shot the assailant in the leg, according to CNN Turk.
The attacker later was identified as as Osman Nuri Caliskan, 41, and was said to have been carrying a 12-inch-long knife.
In January 2014, after an Israeli attack on a terror leader in Gaza, he tweeted “Allah damn Israel, America and Europe. Amen,” according to the Times of Israel.
Israel and Turkey ratified a reconciliation agreement over the summer restoring diplomatic ties after a six-year freeze.
Relations between Israel and Turkey broke down in the aftermath of the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010, when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish citizens in clashes on a boat attempting to break Israel’s Gaza blockade.
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