Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has been carrying out extensive operations against Israel’s intelligence service Mossad, which has been spying on Palestinians in the country and attempting to abduct them.
Launched in October 2021, 29 people were detained in Operation Muteni, which targeted three different groups of Mossad agents. The first group included individuals used by Mossad to reach their goals. They attempted to track the local and foreign contacts of Palestinian targets, access their official documents, track their IP numbers, as well as tracking down the movement of Shiite militias on the Israel-Syria border. The second group consisted of squads trying to abduct Palestinian hacker Omar A., who worked as a hacker for Hamas. The third group included foreign nationals who acted as mediators to transfer money.
This operation was carried out in December 2022 68 suspects were detained. The suspects consisted of two groups. The first group consisted of detectives used by Israeli agents in Türkiye, who collected biographic data about Palestinians, carried out reconnaissance, inquiry work and took photographs and videos, installed tracking devices, found couriers and carried out cyber duties. The second group of suspects included those who did tactical work for Mossad, including creating and managing WhatsApp groups, setting up and managing websites, creating online news sites, research, money transfer, photo and video documentation, causing bodily harm, robbery and acquiring mobile lines for operations.
This operation was conducted in April 2023 and foiled the detective network managed by Selçuk Küçükkaya for Mossad’s spying activities in Türkiye. Some 17 suspects were detained by Turkish security forces. Mossad made the initial contact with Küçükkaya through Serkan Özdemirci, a Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) fugitive. Face-to-face meetings took place in unidentified European countries, according to sources, who noted that they were trained on how to use secret communication channels. These channels were then used to give instructions on tracking, monitoring Palestinian targets, as well as how to illegally transfer good and humans through the Türkiye-Iran border, finding hackers, finding “safe homes” and arranging ambulances if necessary. They also gave instructions for robbery, extortion, sabotage and other criminal acts against Palestinian targets in Türkiye.
This is an ongoing operation, which involves legal action against 46 suspects. There are two groups of suspects in the operation. The first group consists of those who contacted the Israeli intelligence agency through the phone and those who have financial contacts with the Israeli intelligence.
Thirty-four suspects were detained on Tuesday, authorities announced. Operations are underway to capture the other suspects. Authorities said operations were held in eight provinces against people suspected of involvement in espionage activities for Israel.
The investigation found that Israeli intelligence was behind activities targeting foreigners residing in Türkiye, from reconnaissance to assaults and abduction attempts. No other details are available regarding the investigation, but Mossad was implicated in the past in investigations about attempts to kidnap Palestinians living in Türkiye.
