ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish intelligence and anti-terror teams detained seven people accused of selling information to Israeli intelligence (Mossad), the country’s interior minister announced on Tuesday.
“Seven suspects, who were found to have compiled information about individuals and companies in Turkey targeted by the Israeli Intelligence Service and transmitted the collected information and documents to Israeli intelligence elements, have been apprehended,” said Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on X.
According to Yerlikaya drugs, unlicensed guns, electronic devices used to detect a listening device, as well as digital material were seized during the raid.
The raid and the detention of the suspects come against the backdrop of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip. Ankara has been one of the harshest critics of Tel Aviv since the start of the war.
Israeli airstrikes have killed over 30,000 Palestinians since the start of the war on October 7th, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has always mentioned the Gaza war in his election rallies, speeches, and official meetings since the start of the war, and has not shied away from comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
Ankara has asked its allies in the West to end their support for Israel’s “state of terrorism” in the Gaza Strip.
In January, Turkish authorities detained 34 people suspected of having planned kidnappings and espionage for Mossad, with Istanbul’s chief prosecutor’s office saying that 12 other suspects were at large.
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