Turkey Publishes Photographs Of 15 Alleged Palestinian Arab Agents Recruited By Mossad

NEW YORK (VINnews) — The Turkish daily newspaper Sabah published the photographs of 15 men who allegedly spied for the Mossad and were arrested by authorities earlier in the month. The photos were apparently taken by local investigators and are captioned with the men’s initials.

The same newspaper reported last week that the 15 people, all Arabs of Palestinian descent, were arrested October 7th following a year-long National Intelligence Organization (MIT) operation involving some 200 Turkish intelligence officers who tracked down the alleged spies.

Other government-affiliated newspapers also published the pictures. The suspects, said to be of Arab descent, operated in groups of three, the report said. Some had met with Mossad agents in Croatia and Switzerland, where information was exchanged. They had also received orders in the Romanian capital of Bucharest and Kenya’s Nairobi. The five groups had operated in different areas of the country, Sabah reported.

The agents were allegedly gathering information about Palestinians studying in Turkey who may have been recruited by terrorist groups or affiliated with such groups operating in Turkey. The Mossad apparently paid the agents to monitor Palestinians living in Turkey and report about their sources of support and how they entered Turkish universities.

In Israel, it is unclear whether the government gives any credibility to the Turkish claims, but the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman, Ram Ben-Barak, a former deputy director of the Mossad, categorically denied that the suspects were Israeli spies. Ben-Barak suggested that the Turkish government is eager to show its intelligence “achievements,” resulting in the occasional publication of false information. No other senior government officials have referred to the reports.

Hamas responded to the reported arrests by claiming that the agents were being paid both by the Mossad and by PA intelligence sources to spy on Hamas facilities in Turkey.

A report last year claimed that Hamas was secretly operating a facility in Turkey where it conducted cyberattacks and counterintelligence operations against Israel. The headquarters, which is separate from Hamas’s official offices in the city, was set up without the knowledge of Turkish authorities, the report said.

Turkey sees Hamas as a legitimate political movement. The country has long maintained warm ties with Hamas, which have grown more overt as relations with Israel have chilled over the last decade. Israel has complained to Ankara about its ties to Hamas, but to no avail, according to the report.

In August 2020, Erdogan met with a Hamas delegation that included politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh and the terror group’s No. 2, Saleh al-Arouri — a top military commander who has a $5 million US bounty on his head. The meeting was harshly condemned by the US State Department at the time, but the Turkish foreign ministry rejected the criticism, accusing Washington of “serving Israel’s interests.”