ISISTurkish official fired after tweeting she hoped Israelis injured in Istanbul terror attack “were dead”

A Turkish official has been sacked over a tweet in which she expressed her wish that a dozen Israeli tourists wounded in a bomb attack in Istanbul “were dead.”

The suicide attack by what the Turkish government described as a follower of ISIS, killed five people, including the bomber, three Israelis, and an Iranian, and injured thirty-six, of which eleven were Israeli nationals.

According to the Jerusalem Post, shortly after details emerged of the victims of the attack, Irem Aktas, a board member in the women’s branch of the ruling AK Party for the Istanbul district of Eyup, posted a tweet which read: “I wish that the wounded Israeli tourists were dead.”

The tweet triggered a wave of outrage by both Turks and Israelis on social media, and appears to have prompted an angry personal intervention from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu had instructed Israel’s Foreign Ministry to demand an official condemnation and apology from the Turkish government.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon told the Post if it was legitimate, the tweet was a “shocking and ugly statement”.

Times of Israel reports that Aktas’s account has been deleted in the wake of the post, and that she has since been fired from the AK Party.

Turkey’s interior minister confirmed on Sunday that the bomber had been identified as Turkish-born ISIS militant Mehmet Ozturk, who had no previous criminal record and was born in 1992 in Gaziantep province, which borders Syria.

The attack took place in Istanbul’s pedestrian Istiklal Street, which is lined with shops and cafes in an area that also has government offices and foreign missions.