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Turkey announced on Tuesday the arrest of another 33 people suspected of plotting kidnappings and spying for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the suspects were arrested in raids in eight provinces in and around Istanbul.
It was not immediately clear whether they were Israeli citizens or locals allegedly collaborating with the Mossad.
“We will never allow espionage activities contrary to the national unity and solidarity of our country to be carried out,” Yerlikaya said on social media.
The Yerlikaya published video footage showing armed security officers 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 after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas just three months ago.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has one of the world’s harshest critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Last week, the Turkish leader compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and demanded that Israel’s Western allies leave his country over “terrorism” carried out 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 ruling conservative Islamic AKP party led tens of thousands of protesters into the streets of Istanbul on Monday in one of the largest anti-Israel demonstrations of Turkey’s entire war.
– End of thaw –
The war in Gaza ended a slow Turkish-Israeli thaw that culminated in the re-election of ambassadors in 2022.
Israel and Turkey have resumed long-stalled negotiations over the allocation of a major pipeline in the Mediterranean that may have reshaped geopolitical alliances in parts of the Middle East.
Turkey got words of thanks from Israel in 2022 for arresting a group of Turkish and Iranian nationals who were planning to murder and kidnap Israeli tourists in Istanbul.
Erdogan and Netanyahu met on the sidelines of a U. N. assembly in New York in September and were discussing holding a formal summit this year.
Turkey’s MIT intelligence conducts regular raids against suspected Israeli agents on the move in major cities such as Ankara and Istanbul.
Most are accused of carrying out surveillance work on Palestinians living in Turkey.
Istanbul was one of Hamas’ foreign policy offices until the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Turkey unofficially called on Hamas leaders to leave, days after militants carried out unprecedented raids in southern Israel that killed some 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The Islamists also took around 250 people hostage. Israeli officials believe more than half of them remain in Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel’s incredibly destructive military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed an estimated 22,000 more people, mostly women and children.
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