Erdogan phones Herzog to discuss Temple Mount tensions, terror attacks

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israeli President Isaac Herzog on April 8 night to express his concerns amid escalating tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank over the past week, as Israel grapples with a string of terror attacks that killed three people over the weekend.

According to a readout from Herzog’s office, Erdogan initiated the phone call and expressed his condolences to the Israeli people for the separate attacks in the West Bank, where two sisters were killed and their mother was critically injured, and in Tel Aviv, where an Italian tourist died in a suspected car-ramming attack, The Times of Israel reports.

The call came as Muslims mark the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which this year once again coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover. Erdogan wished Herzog and the people of Israel a happy Passover, and the Israeli president responded with the greeting “Ramadan Kareem.”

In Israel, the month of Ramadan is known to be a period of high tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinians, especially in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Tens of thousands of worshipers visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque — located in the Temple Mount in Jerusalem — throughout the month, regularly leading to a spike in violence. The site is the holiest site for Jews, as the location of two biblical temples, while the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Mount is the third holiest shrine in Islam, turning the area into a major flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This week, tensions have soared following clashes at Al-Aqsa, followed by tit-for-tat rocket fire by terror group Hamas from the Gaza Strip and Israeli strikes, a major rocket barrage from Lebanon on April 6 — also believed to be the work of Hamas in southern Lebanon — as well as rocket fire April 8 night from Syria, and a suspected Iranian drone launched from Syria earlier in the week.

In a call with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on April 7, Erdogan said that “the Islamic world should be united against Israel’s attacks in Palestine.”