ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish authorities have detained nine people as part of an investigation into an attack on police outside a building housing the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul that left one assailant dead, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported Wednesday.
Two other assailants were wounded and captured during Tuesday’s shootout in the city's financial and business district, while two police officers sustained slight injuries, officials said.
Israel had withdrawn its diplomats from Turkey over security concerns and deteriorating relations with Ankara shortly after the start of the war in Gaza, and officials said the consulate was closed at the time of the attack.
Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said one of the assailants had links to a group that he said “exploits religion,” without naming the organization.
The Islamic State group has carried out deadly attacks in Turkey in the past.
Anadolu Agency reported that security forces detained nine suspects in operations conducted in Istanbul as well as in the provinces of Konya and Kocaeli. They were being questioned along with the two injured assailants, the agency reported, without providing further details.
Cifti said the attackers had traveled from the city of Izmit, in Kocaeli province, in a rented car. The two wounded assailants are brothers, identified as Onur C. and Enes C. The first has a criminal record related to drugs.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned the attack and praised the Turkish authorities for preventing further violence.
Turkish police secure the area after a gunmen attack at a building housing the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli strikes hit several dense commercial and residential areas in central Beirut without warning Wednesday afternoon, hours after a ceasefire was announced in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Lebanon’s health ministry said dozens were killed and hundreds wounded in an early estimate.
Israel had said the agreement does not extend to its war with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, although mediator Pakistan said it does.
The fleeting sense of relief among Lebanese after the ceasefire announcement turned into panic with what Israel’s military called its largest coordinated strike in the current war, hitting more than 100 Hezbollah targets within 10 minutes in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa valley.
Black smoke towered over several parts of the seaside capital, where a huge number of people displaced by war have taken shelter. Explosions interrupted the honking of traffic on what had been a bustling, blue-sky afternoon. Ambulances raced toward open flames. Apartment buildings were struck.
Associated Press journalists saw charred bodies in vehicles and on the ground at one of Beirut’s busiest intersections in the central Corniche al Mazraa neighborhood, a mixed commercial and residential area. Using forklifts, rescue workers removed smoldering debris and sifted through ruins for survivors.
There was no sign of Hezbollah launching strikes against Israel in the first couple of hours after the attacks.
Lebanon's Minister of Social Affairs, Haneed Sayed, in an interview with The Associated Press condemned Israel’s wide range of strikes, calling it a “very dangerous turning point.”
“These hits are now at the heart of Beirut … Half of the sheltered (internally displaced persons) are in Beirut in this area,” she said, adding that she had just driven by areas hit.
She said Lebanon's government is ready to enter into negotiations with Israel for an end to hostilities, an offer that the president previously made. Israel has not responded. “There are calls and efforts being made as we speak," Sayed said.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in a statement accused Israel of escalating at a moment when Lebanese officials were seeking to negotiate a solution, and of hitting civilian areas in “utter disregard for the principles of international law and international humanitarian law — principles it has, in any case, never respected.”
Israel's military said it had targeted missile launchers, command centers and intelligence infrastructure. It accused Hezbollah fighters of trying to “blend into” non-Shiite Muslim areas beyond their traditional strongholds.
Residents and local officials denied that the buildings hit were military sites.
“Look at these crimes,” said Mohammed Balouza, a member of Beirut’s municipal council, at the scene of a strike in Corniche al Mazraa. An apartment building behind a popular shop selling nuts and dried fruit had been hit. “This is a residential area. There is nothing (military) here.”
Israel had rarely struck central Beirut since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war on March 2 but has regularly struck southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
As the smoke rose Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem that “his turn will come.” In 2024, Israel killed previous Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with an airstrike.
Before the new strikes, a Hezbollah official told the AP that the group was giving a chance for mediators to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon, but “we have not announced our adherence to the ceasefire since the Israelis are not adhering to it.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
The Hezbollah official said the group will not accept a return to the pre-March 2 status quo, when Israel carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon despite a ceasefire being nominally in place since the last full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November 2024.
“We will not accept for the Israelis to continue behaving as they did before this war with regards to attacks,” he said.
Hezbollah had fired missiles across the border days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, sparking a regional war. Israel responded with widespread bombardment of Lebanon and a ground invasion.
The Israeli military chief of staff on Wednesday said they will continue to “utilize every operational opportunity” to strike Hezbollah. Lt Gen. Eyal Zamir said it’s to protect Israel’s northern residents, who have come under heavy fire.
Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 1,530 people in Lebanon, including more than 100 women and 130 children. The Israeli military has said it has killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters. More than one million people have been displaced in Lebanon.
Early Wednesday, after the ceasefire in Iran was announced and before Israel struck, many displaced people sleeping in tents on the streets of Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon had begun packing their belongings in preparation to return to their homes.
Families at a sprawling displacement camp on Beirut’s waterfront later expressed confusion and despair.
“We can’t take this anymore, sleeping in a tent, not showering, the uncertainty,” said Fadi Zaydan, 35. He and his parents had prepared to head back to the southern city of Nabatieh. Instead, they decided to wait things out for now in Sidon, a bit closer to home.
Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre contributed. AP writers Hussein Mallah and Fadi Tawil in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Eilat, Israel, contributed.
A first responder emerges through the smoke at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Firefighters try to put out flames at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
First responders work at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A woman is assisted at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on a building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
