Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who won Israel’s election this month, that 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 for the “events that happened two days ago in the West Bank.” For his part, Netanyahu expressed his condolences for those who lost their lives in the bomb attack in Istanbul on Sunday, the Turkish announcement underlines.

“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 phone conversation came amid a rewarming of relations between the two countries after years of tensions. Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Ankara this year in the first visit by an Israeli leader to Turkey since 2008.

Relations between Israel and Turkey have been strained for more than a decade, with Ankara expelling Israel’s ambassador after a 2010 Israeli raid on a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza left ten Turkish citizens dead.

Diplomatic relations were restored in 2016, but two years later Turkey recalled its diplomats from Israel and expelled Israeli envoys after Israeli forces killed Palestinians who had taken part in protests in the Gaza Strip.

The two countries nominated each other’s ambassadors this year.

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, expected to re-elect Netanyahu as prime minister with the support of a far-right coalition.