Seven people were arrested as part of a Turkish intelligence operation that uncovered a network of 56 people who are accused of working for the Israeli Mossad. The occurrence of the arrests was reported by Israeli media citing a Monday report by Turkish newspaper, The Daily Sabah.
According to the report, the detainees confessed to the accusations.
The report writes that it sources documents released from Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
The Turkish media organization writes that the exposure of the network of Mossad operatives was the result of months of surveillance and alleges that the operatives were spying on non-Turkish nationals, an effort that resulted in the arrests and confessions of seven people.
The Daily Sabah reports that the MIT documents found that the 56 Mossad operatives had connections to a sum of nine networks with each network overseen by nine, Tel Aviv-based Mossad agents.
The roles of the Mossad operatives
The Turkish media report asserts that MIT documents found the alleged Mossad operative were tasked with collecting intelligence on their targets through a variety of methods including “through an online routing method, tracking vehicle movements via GPS, hacking into password-protected networks based on Wi-Fi devices and finding private locations.”
Apparently, the cell of Mossad operatives was comprised of many non-Israeli citizens of middle eastern nations who followed, photographed, and otherwise surveilled their targets. The Turkish source writes that the supervisor of that particular operation was an Arab Israeli agent and that at least one of the operatives is a Palestinian.
International reach of the Mossad cell
The report goes on to detail the actions of the Turkish-based operative cell in other middle eastern countries. Apparently, members of the cell in Lebanon, for example, conducted various operations including marking targets for later strikes and spying on Hezbollah’s military leadership.
This is not the first time Turkish sources have claimed Turkish intelligence services have busted spies working for Israel. The Daily Sabah writes that Turkey arrested six Mossad operatives in May of this year and that in December of last year, found a unit of Mossad agents working to spread online defamation and intimidation of Palestinians.