Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, following the multiple suicide-bombing attack on Tuesday. Photo: Twitter.

JNS.org – Israeli leaders have expressed their condolences to Turkey a day after Tuesday’s bombing terror attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, in which at least 41 people were killed and scores of others were injured. The Islamic State terror group is suspected to have carried out the attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on “civilized nations” to fight against “the scourge of terrorism,” and President Reuven Rivlin called the attack a “cowardly, murderous act.” The attack came amid the Israeli diplomatic-security cabinet’s approval of the recently struck reconciliation agreement between Israel and Turkey.

The attack “is an example of the most vitriolic hatred the like of which we are sadly seeing across our region and the entire world today,” Rivlin wrote in a letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“I take this opportunity to welcome the chance to renew our good relationship especially because our strengthened dialogue will greatly aid in our joint efforts against this threat,” Rivlin added.

Former Israeli president Shimon Peres said, “Those who stand up to terror must know that there are difficult consequences.”

All Israelis who are currently in Turkey are reportedly safe following the airport attack. Initially, a number of those Israelis did not make contact with authorities after the attack. Israel was particularly concerned about the safety of Israelis living in Turkey because three Israeli tourists were targeted and killed in a suicide bombing in the March 2016 suicide bombing in Istanbul.

Turkey’s Jewish community is “on edge” after the airport attack, Turkish Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Haliva told the Jerusalem Post, although he added that the community is being “protected under the defense of the Turkish state.”

“Security officials are doing their job well,” he said.