Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett delivers a speech during the annual Yom Hazikaron Remembrance Day ceremony for fallen Israeli soldiers, in the Yad Le’Banim Memorial in Jerusalem on May 3, 2022. Photo: Menahem Kahana/Pool via Reuters

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday asserted that Israel will act anywhere in the world to protect its citizens as he warned about attempts to harm Israelis abroad.

“These days, we are witnessing attempts to harm Israelis in various destinations abroad,” Bennett stated. “Israel’s security forces are doing everything to thwart such attacks, and to neutralize in advance the senders of the terrorists, and the senders of their senders.”

Speaking at the state ceremony to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the First Lebanon War, Bennett cautioned that the government “will not hesitate to use the power of the State of Israel anywhere in the world, for the protection of our citizens.”

Bennett’s warning comes after Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday urged its citizens not to visit Turkey and told those who are in the country to leave immediately in the face of a series of attempted Iranian terrorist attacks against Israelis on vacation in Istanbul in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the country’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau, part of the National Security Council, raised the travel warning for Istanbul to Level 4 – the highest level.

Turkish security forces have secured places where Israeli tourists are staying and are conducting a manhunt for Iranian terrorist cells in cooperation with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Israeli news outlet N12 reported on Tuesday. In recent days, at least 1,000 Israelis in Turkey received calls by Israeli security officials warning them about attempts to harm them and asking them to leave the country.

Tehran has vowed to retaliate against assassinations in Iran that have been attributed to Israel in recent weeks, including the killing of senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officer Hassan Sayad Khodayari in Tehran last month.