On Dec. 1, the Wall Street Journal published a story by Dion Nissenbaum saying that Israel is planning to kill Hamas members around the world, mentioning those living in Lebanon, Trkiye, and Qatar. Turkish officials responded with a harsh statement through Anadolu that the Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) will never permit such undertakings, as various intelligence organizations tried to in the past. Pointing out the illegality of these alleged acts in Trkiye, officials said they had warned Mossad representatives in Trkiye. Turkish intelligence has made public several intelligence operations revealing Mossad cells and their activities in Trkiye. This shows that another wave of intelligence competition is coming in the days ahead including Mossad’s quest to attack Hamas in third countries and the MIT’s efforts to repel the Mossad threats.
Why did Trkiye warn Israel against intelligence operations targeting Hamas members in Trkiye?
Neither Trkiye nor any other country would ever accept being a playground fo
r Mossad’s intelligence operations. Such an act would violate Turkish laws and Trkiye’s sovereignty. Nor would Trkiye cooperate with Israel here, since it does not recognize Hamas as a terrorist group, especially if the Israeli aggression in Gaza is taken into consideration. The natural outcome of such an undertaking would be increased intelligence efforts on suspected Mossad units, as Trkiye did last year. The first operation identified 15 Mossad members who were trying to recruit Arab students in Trkiye. The second operation was this summer was when Turkish intelligence thwarted seven Mossad members who were planning to attack 14 Palestinians. Another piece of information circulated by Turkish media was that Turkish intelligence identified and arrested 13 Mossad members gathering information on Iranian citizens and companies this May. If Mossad repeats such acts, covertly or overtly, the Israeli intelligence community in Trkiye will be accused of committing espionage and terror activities. As could be witne
ssed in events in 2021, 2022, and 2023, Trkiye never accepted the intelligence activities of third parties, especially Iran and Israel, on its soil.
What are Trkiye’s options if Mossad starts an intelligence operation?
Trkiye has observed how Mossad assassinated high-value Iranian individuals with remote-controlled arms mounted on vehicles or assassinations. Thus, any expert would anticipate that Turkish intelligence has already prioritized Mossad’s activities in Trkiye within the context of counterintelligence. For instance, in Malaysia, Turkish intelligence recently rescued a Palestinian who is a software expert. So Turkish intelligence is prepared to respond to such acts.
Once Israel starts an intelligence offensive in Trkiye targeting Hamas or any other nationality, the reaction could be a combination of countermeasures, which might already be put in action. It may be an integrated effort through symmetric and asymmetric methods. The symmetry would address the prerequisites of reciprocity to prevent th
e hostile acts of Mossad. In this sense, the initial response is increased vigilance through counterintelligence measures covering all intelligence disciplines. A common practice of Mossad is to exploit nationals from third countries in their intelligence activities. Trkiye is quite familiar with that tactic. Hence Trkish intelligence will not only focus on individuals with linkages to Israel but on all probable ones with Turkish or a third country nationality.
Other than countermeasures, given that Trkiye provided information on the whereabouts of a Palestinian hacker to Malaysian intelligence, Trkiye may provide timely and accurate information to other countries so as to deter Mossad activities. Trkiye may deepen collaboration with these intelligence organizations to deter the acts of Mossad if it is seen as a direct threat.
The asymmetric response would be political and may be based on sanctions on Israeli interests as far as Israel directly starts an aggression in Turkish territories. Trkiye may limit I
sraeli citizens’ travels in Trkiye or deprive Israeli companies of the use of required services by Turkish service providers. Combined with Israel’s crimes against humanity in Gaza, Trkiye may run arrest warrants through international institutions and limit the freedom to maneuver of Israeli citizens suspected of being involved in hostile acts.
Is intelligence organizations’ cooperation against Mossad possible?
Western governments mostly support the Israeli cause against Hamas, and intelligence assets mounted on British Royal Air Force aircraft started to provide information on the Gaza hostages’ whereabouts. On the other hand, there exists no significant detail on what assets and what intelligence methodology they will use. The lessons learned from Afghanistan and Iraq remind us that we will witness signal intelligence assets, which are already active in southern Cyprus in British bases, probably scanning cell phones, receivers, or any transmitter. Turkish intelligence will be interested in what and how Is
raeli and British intelligence are proceeding with their activities, though it is not a matter of intervening for now. Nevertheless, once Mossad starts intelligence operations in Trkiye, the conditions may change. Trkiye may be more active in the region cooperating with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, or other countries.
The best scenario for Mossad is to respect the sovereignty of other states. The worst case appears igniting an intelligence competition in which current technology facilitates accessing secrets. That is why Turkish intelligence didn’t hesitate to warn the representatives of Mossad in Trkiye.
Source: Anadolu Agency