Turkish authorities claim to have detained a key operative connected to Israel’s Mossad national intelligence agency in Istanbul, the country’s pro-government Hürriyet newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Liridon Rexhepi, a Kosovo national who was said to have entered Turkey on Aug. 25, was arrested on Friday after Ankara’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) identified him as an “operator of a financial network supporting Mossad’s activities in the country,” Hürriyet said.
Rexhepi stands accused of sending funds to field operatives in Turkey who, acting on orders of Israel’s Mossad, conducted drone surveillance, engaged in psychological warfare targeting “Palestinian politicians” and gathered intelligence on Syria from Turkish soil, according to the report.
MIT uncovered several payments to Turkish operatives via Western Union and, following his arrest, Rexhepi was said to have admitted to making the transfers during police questioning, Hürriyet reported. The Kosovar was subsequently “arrested and sent to prison,” per the report.
Turkish intelligence found that the Mossad sent funds to its operatives in Turkey, mainly from Kosovo and other Eastern European countries. The funds received by Turkish operatives through Western Union and cryptocurrency were allegedly also used to pay Syrian contacts.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has become ever more hostile towards the Jewish state and closer to Hamas since the terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, in which some 1,200 people were murdered.
In May, Erdoğan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “vampire who feeds on blood,” urging Muslims to fight the Jewish state.
“The world is watching the barbarity of … a vampire who feeds on blood called Netanyahu, and they are watching it on live broadcast,” he said.
Two months ago, Erdoğan told Newsweek that Palestinian terrorists in Gaza are “simply defending their homes, streets and homeland.
“What is between Israel and Gaza is not war,” he continued. “Israel has been treating Gaza as an open-air prison for years. They are usurping Palestinians of their homes, businesses and farmlands throughout Palestinian territory using thieving terrorists they call settlers.”
In January, Turkish authorities arrested 33 individuals on suspicion of conducting espionage activities on behalf of the Mossad. The alleged agents were accused of surveillance, assaults and abduction attempts.
