Despite heightened Israeli-Turkish tensions in recent months, Israeli President Shimon Peres sent his country's condolences Sunday to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the loss of his mother, dpa reported.
"The passing of your beloved mother was received with much sadness. From personal experience I know the deep sense of grief of feeling like an orphan, and the boundless sorrow of your loss," Peres wrote in a letter to Erdogan.
"Please accept my profound condolences and sympathy in this time of mourning. May she rest in peace and her memory be blessed."
Turkish-Israeli relations have worsened since the three-week Gaza war in the winter of 2008-09, with Ankara expressing fierce criticism, and hit rock bottom when Israeli naval commandos shot dead eight Turkish activists and a US citizen of Turkish descent on board a flotilla seeking to break the Gaza blockade in May 2010.
Erdogan's mother, 83, died after undergoing surgery.