Turkey arrests six people for spying for Israel's Mossad

In the latest in a wave of such arrests, Turkey’s intelligence agency (MIT) said that authorities have arrested six people and charged them with spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.

On Tuesday this week, Turkish police detained seven more people suspected of selling information to the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

Last month, seven other people, including private detectives, were arrested on similar suspicions. And in early January, 34 people were also detained by Turkish police on suspicion of spying for Israel.

Turkish and Israeli leaders have traded public barbs since Israel’s war with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas began last October. Turkey has warned Israel of “serious consequences” if it tries to hunt down Hamas members living outside the Palestinian territories, including in Turkey.

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The suspects arrested in January have been accused of planning to carry out activities that included reconnaissance and “pursuing, assaulting and kidnapping” foreign nationals living in Turkey.

At the time, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said most of the suspects were charged with committing “political or military espionage” on behalf of Israeli intelligence. Turkey and Israel had normalized ties in 2022 by reappointing ambassadors following years of tensions. But those ties quickly deteriorated after the Israel-Hamas war, with Ankara becoming one of the strongest critics of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

In December, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said that his organization was prepared to target the militant Hamas group anywhere, including in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Israel of “serious consequences” if Israel pressed ahead with its threat to attack Hamas officials on Turkish soil.

With inputs from agencies.