The National Security Council’s counterterrorism bureau advised Israelis on Tuesday night to avoid traveling to Turkey because of the threat of an impending terrorist attack there.

Terrorist elements were planning an attack against “Israeli/Jewish targets in Turkey in the coming days,” the bureau said. Therefore, according to the advisory, Israelis should refrain from visiting the country.

The advisory comes less than a week after the Mossad – according to a report in the Istanbul-based daily Hurriyet – warned that Israel’s diplomatic missions in the country could be targeted by Iran.

Citing a story aired on NTV News, Hurriyet said the Mossad sent a letter to Turkey’s MIT National Intelligence Agency warning of a plot by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force to attack Israeli targets in the country. Israel has an embassy in Ankara – though the ambassador and top diplomats were expelled last year as a result of the Mavi Marmara raid – and a consulate in Istanbul.

Four people have already entered Turkey from Iran and are in possession of weapons and materials to be used in the attacks, the report added.

The travel advisory comes soon after a series of alleged Iranian plots to attack Israeli targets were thwarted in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Thailand. One attack succeeded when a bomb attached to an Israeli diplomatic car wounded Tali Yehoshua Koren in New Delhi.

The advisory also came just hours after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who in recent weeks has slightly toned down his anti- Israel rhetoric, stepped it up once again, accusing Israel of committing genocide.

“We are asking that Israel stop the genocide it is carrying out against Palestinians in Gaza,” Erdogan said. “We are asking Israeli residents, the children of the Holocaust, to stop the attacks against the Palestinian people. The government is carrying out terrorist actions; I ask that the people say enough to this terror.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor responded by saying, “If targeting rocket shooters is genocide, what would Mr. Erdogan call killing Kurdish civilians?” Erdogan’s comments came as the US continues to look for ways to improve Israeli-Turkish ties. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama discussed the matter in Washington last week.

Yaakov Katz contributed to this report. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 03/13/12)