President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi held a phone call on Friday focusing on bilateral relations, regional matters, as well as Israel’s attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Presidency's Directorate of Communications said.

"The Islamic world should be united against Israel's attacks in Palestine," Erdoğan reportedly told Raisi as Israeli airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip continued for the second day this week.

The Israeli army launched air attacks on Gaza and southern Lebanon early Friday.

The escalation follows Israeli forces' storming of the Al-Qibli Prayer Hall in the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem and forcibly removing Palestinian worshippers for two nights in a row, a move that drew a strong backlash worldwide.

Emphasizing the need for "reasonable thinking" in order to prevent a new cycle of violence in Palestine, Erdoğan said it would be "beneficial" for all sides to adopt common sense.

He further urged Raisi to continue efforts to preserve the status of holy places on international platforms, starting with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the United Nations.

Erdoğan also stressed to Raisi the importance of "demonstrating this unity against recent attacks" on Islam's holy book Quran in front of Turkish Embassies in various European cities.

He was referring to acts by far-right extremists in western Europe who torched copies of the Quran on several occasions in the past three months, which angered the Muslim world and sparked weekslong protests.

Erdoğan and Raisi last met on the sidelines of the 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan last September where they discussed expediting the implementation of a series of pacts signed earlier in July 2022. It was Erdoğan’s first visit to Iran since the formation of a new government, which Raisi had hailed as "an important turning point" in improving cooperation.

Raisi is now due at a yet-unknown date for a visit to Ankara, which was postponed twice, once due to undisclosed reasons, and then owing to the earthquakes in Türkiye.

Raisi’s upcoming visit is expected to start a new phase in bilateral relations, as expressed by top diplomats on both sides.

While Ankara and Tehran are at odds over several issues, most pressingly the situation in Syria due to Iran’s military backing of President Bashar Assad’s regime during the civil war, recent meetings and mutual visits have pushed balances to a more positive direction, with Tehran expressing open support for a thaw between Damascus and Ankara.