Türkiye on Wednesday denounced an Israeli strike that killed three of its citizens who attempted to cross from Lebanon to Israel illegally.
"It has been learned that the three Turkish citizens, with whom contact had been lost while attempting to cross illegally from Lebanon to Israel, lost their lives as a result of an Israeli airstrike in the region," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry would not give the exact location of the strike or name the citizens.
It added that Ankara was working to repatriate their bodies to Türkiye "as soon as possible."
"We condemn in the strongest terms this unlawful attack that resulted in the death of our citizens," the ministry said, urging Israel to "immediately end its aggressive policies that disregard human life and escalate tensions in our region."
The Israeli military did not immediately offer comment on the killings.
Israeli forces occupy territory inside Lebanon along some parts of the border after fighting a war with Hezbollah, which ended in a cease-fire last year.
Both sides have until Feb. 18 to pull all of their forces out of southern Lebanon, but Israel has violated the cease-fire for two days in a row, striking southern Lebanon repeatedly and killing two people on Monday and another 24 the day before.
Türkiye has been a fervent critic of Israel over its bloody campaign in the Gaza Strip, which killed at least 47,000 Palestinians in over 15 months of attacks.
Most recently, Ankara was outraged by the killing of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish-U.S. citizen shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank last September.
Turkish-Israeli ties also deteriorated again after Oct. 7, the start of the new round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
