ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone Thursday with Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog, urging continued dialogue, in a rare exchange between the two countries, the presidency said. The phone call came a few hours after an Israeli couple held in Turkey for a week on suspicion of espionage were released.

Relations between Turkey and Israel have been strained, especially since ambassadors were withdrawn in 2018 after the deaths of Palestinian protesters in Gaza. Mordi and Natali Oknin were detained last week for allegedly taking a photograph of Erdogan’s residence from Istanbul’s tallest building.