Turkish security forces have arrested seven individuals on suspicion of passing information to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. The arrests followed a joint raid by police and Turkey's MIT
intelligence agency in Istanbul and Izmir.
Tensions between Turkey's President Erdogan and Israeli leaders have heightened since the conflict with Hamas, leading to a warning of "serious consequences" if Israel targets Hamas members on Turkish soil. Turkey, unlike many Western countries and some Arab states, does not classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, reflecting strong pro-Palestinian sentiment in the country. The recent arrests stem from Mossad allegedly using private detectives to monitor, photograph, and track suspected Hamas members.
The ongoing conflict has fueled an acrimonious war of words between Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Photo by World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, Wikimedia commons.