Türkiye launches investigation into Israeli airstrike killing 3 of its nationals

By Cemil Murat Budak and Seda Sevencan

ANKARA / ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into an Israeli airstrike killing three Turkish citizens who were trying to cross from Lebanon into Israel, officials said Wednesday.

Prosecutors in the capital Ankara said they had had opened the investigation ex officio into the incident.

The bodies have been sent to Türkiye, and autopsy procedures are ongoing, a statement said.

Upon completion of the autopsies, the relevant documents will be sent to the prosecutor’s office, it added.

The three men went missing last month.

Within days, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it condemned in the sharpest terms “this unlawful attack that resulted in the death of our citizens.”

It said: "It has been learned that the three Turkish citizens, with whom contact was lost while attempting to cross illegally from Lebanon to Israel, lost their lives as a result of an Israeli airstrike in the region.”