A report in a pro-government Turkish daily Monday claimed seven members of an Israeli spy ring were arrested by the counterintelligence branch of the country’s National Intelligence Organization, as part of a crackdown on an allegedly larger spy network.
According to the Daily Sabah, the seven were part of a 56-member team operated remotely from Tel Aviv by Israeli handlers, who communicated with the separate cells using burner phones. The report said the seven, who were not identified, confessed to working for Israeli intelligence.
It was not specified what happened to the other suspects, which were said to include an Arab Israeli, Turkish nationals and Syrians.
The operatives reportedly gathered intelligence on targets using sophisticated surveillance techniques, including by sending links with viruses that infect phones when clicked. The report said some of the links were to stories on fake news websites set up by the network, most of which were in Arabic.
The Turkish daily said the network’s Arabic-speaking members were dispatched to Lebanon and Syria to gather intelligence and pick out targets to be later struck by Israel, among them a building in Beirut where senior figures from the Hezbollah terror group reside.
The report also asserted dozens of other operatives traveled to a secret Mossad facility in Thailand to learn the art of espionage, such as evading counterintelligence and put tracking devices on vehicles. Once in Turkey, they then reportedly had to undergo further training to test their skills and loyalty before going operational.
Israel, which rarely comments publicly on Mossad actions, has not reacted to the allegations.
Two Turkish riot police officers walk in front of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, on June 14, 2022. (Yasin Akgul/AFP)
In recent years, Turkish intelligence has claimed via Daily Sabah reports to have uncovered numerous Mossad espionage rings, including in May, when it said 11 people were arrested for spying on Iranian targets for Israel.
The reports have come as the two countries have moved to patch up ties after years of tensions, fully reestablishing diplomatic ties last year. A year ago, security forces from both countries worked together to prevent an Iranian assassination plot on Turkish soil. Turkish forces tracked and arrested the Iranian agents as they attempted to kidnap and kill Israeli tourists in Istanbul in a revenge attack for Israel’s alleged assassination of a high-ranking Iranian military figure in May.
A major outstanding point of contention between the two regional powers is the Hamas office in Istanbul, which Ankara insists deals only with political activities. Israel charges that the Gaza-ruling terror group uses its hub in Turkey to direct terror attacks and has publicly demanded that the office be shuttered.
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Turkey said to arrest 7 members of alleged sprawling Mossad spy network - The Times of Israel
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