President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Benjamin Netanyahupresidential election winner Israel This month, it is important to maintain bilateral relations based on respect for mutual interests, the Turkish Presidency said today.

In a telephone conversation between the two leaders, Erdogan expressed to Netanyahu his regret over “the events that took place two days ago in the West Bank.” For his part, Netanyahu offered his condolences to those killed in the Istanbul bombing on Sunday, the Turkish statement said.

“The two leaders agreed to work together to create a new era in relations between Turkey and Israel,” Netanyahu’s Likud party said in a statement, adding that the two men discussed how to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties.

The telephone conversation came amid warming relations between the two countries after years of tension. Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Ankara this year, the first visit by an Israeli leader to Turkey since 2008.

Relations between Israel and Turkey have been strained for more than a decade: Ankara expelled an Israeli ambassador after an Israeli raid on a humanitarian aid ship to Gaza in 2010 killed ten Turkish citizens.

Diplomatic relations were re-established in 2016, but two years later Turkey withdrew its diplomats from Israel and expelled Israeli ambassadors after Israeli forces killed Palestinians taking part in protests in the Gaza Strip.

This year, the two countries mutually appointed ambassadors.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian killed three Israelis near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank and was hailed as a hero by Islamist militants hours before the swearing in of Israeli lawmakers in the Knesset, which is expected to re-elect Netanyahu as prime minister with the backing of a far-right coalition.

^{Source: APE-MEB, Reuters, Anadolu.}