Turkish media outlets on Thursday reported 15 individuals suspected of spying for Israel were arrested as part of a massive operation by local security forces and Turkish police. According to local reports, 200 members of the Turkish security forces took part in the series of raids in which five different alleged espionage cells, each numbering three people, were apprehended.
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According to the Daily Sabah, the operation was carried out on Oct. 7, following a year in which intelligence information was collected on the agents' activities.
While reports in Turkish media did not reveal which country the alleged spies came from, they did note their Middle Eastern appearance. According to the reports, the agents transferred classified information and documents to the Mossad – Israel's national intelligence agency.
According to the Anadolu news agency, "the network relied on Palestinian and Syrian nationals living in Turkey, who received payments through wire transfers and couriers."
The suspects were allegedly spying on senior Hamas officials based in Turkey, as well as on several foreign exchange students.
Anadolu noted that the suspects were arreigned and then transferred to the Maltepe maximum-security prison in Istanbul.
Three weeks ago, the Palestinian Authority expressed concern over the disappearance of seven Palestinians in the Turkish cities of Istanbul and Konya, as well as in the Turkish-Greek border area. Three of the Palestinians were residents of the Gaza Strip and four others were from the West Bank.
Last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government bolstered its already close relationship with the Hamas terrorist group by granting Turkish citizenship to senior Hamas members, Britain's The Telegraph reported. The move would allow them to travel freely and enable them to plot terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets across the globe.
According to the report, seven of 12 Hamas operatives who use Turkey as their base of operations have received Turkish citizenship, as well as passports, while another five are in the process of receiving them. In some cases, the Hamas terrorists are living under Turkish aliases.
"These are not foot soldiers but the most senior Hamas operatives outside of Gaza. [They] are actively raising funds and directing operatives to carry out attacks in the present day," a senior source in the region told The Telegraph.
"The Turkish Government gave in to pressure by Hamas to grant citizenship to its operatives, thereby allowing them to travel more freely, endangering other countries that have listed Hamas as a terror group," the source added.
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