With AFPTuesday 2 January 2024 – 15:25
Turkey on Tuesday announced the detention of 33 people suspected of planning abductions and spying on behalf of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the suspects were rounded up in raids across eight provinces in and around Istanbul.
It was not immediately clear if they were Israeli nationals or locals allegedly working with Mossad.
“We will never allow espionage activities to be conducted against the national unity and solidarity of our country,” Yerlikaya said on social media.
Yerlikaya’s office released video footage showing armed security service agents breaking down doors and handcuffing suspects in their homes.
The Istanbul public prosecutor’s office said 13 additional suspects remained at large.
Relations between Turkey and Israel imploded following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war nearly three months ago.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned into one of the world’s harshest critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Turkish leader last week compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and demanded that Israel’s Western allies drop their support for the “terrorism” being conducted by Israeli troops.
Erdogan has also recalled Ankara’s envoy to Tel Aviv and pushed for the trial of Israeli commanders and political leaders at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The president’s ruling Islamic conservative party AKP also led tens of thousands of protesters out on the streets of Istanbul on Monday for one of Turkey’s biggest anti-Israel rallies of the entire war.
