Turkey detains 33 people accused of spying for Israel’s Mossad

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Turkey on Tuesday detained 33 people suspected of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, Turkish media reported, without specifying the nationalities of those detained.

Issued on: 02/01/2024 – 11:32Modified: 02/01/2024 – 11:34

1 min

File photo: A member of the police special forces (R) stands guard holding a sniper rifle during a rally in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul on the eve of presidential and parliamentary elections, May 13, 2023. © Ozan Kose, AFP

The suspects were rounded up in raids across eight provinces around Istanbul, the private DHA and state-run Anadolu news agencies reported, adding that their mission included conducting abductions and carrying out reconnaissance work.

Turkish security services were still looking for 13 more suspects accused of engaging “international espionage” on Israel’s behalf, the reports said.

Relations between Turkey and Israel deteriorated sharply following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned into one of the world’s harshest critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he compared to Adolf Hitler last week.

Erdogan has recalled Ankara’s envoy to Tel Aviv and demanded that Israeli commanders and political leaders be put on trial for “war crimes” at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The Gaza war ended a gradual improvement in Turkish-Israeli relations, which were effectively frozen for most of the past decade.

(AFP)