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Turkey arrests 44, claiming they are tied to Mossad
(JTA) — Turkey arrested 44 people on Wednesday for what officials claimed was their involvement with Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, Turkish media reported.
Those arrested appear to be largely Turkish citizens, and the group includes several private detectives, as well as the director of a private detective firm named Ismail Yetimoglu. No Israelis were arrested.
According to Turkish media, those arrested have been accused of shadowing Palestinians and pro-Palestinian organizations in Turkey. Israel has not publicly addressed the arrests.
The arrests come at a warm point in Turkish-Israeli relations, as the two countries recently exchanged ambassadors for the first time in years. This past spring, Mossad’s collaboration with MIT, the Turkish intelligence service, was touted as essential in ending a plot by an Iranian-backed terror cell targeting Israeli tourists in Istanbul.
Still, Turkey has continued to work closely with leadership of Hamas and others that Israel considers terror groups.
“This is a very clear message to Israel, that normalization does not mean that you can act against Palestinians inside Turkish territory,” Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a Turkey scholar at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told the Times of Israel.
Turkey has used the claim of Mossad involvement to arrest others before. Last year, an Israeli couple spent eight days in Turkish prison for taking pictures of Istanbul’s Dolmabahce palace. The palace, which housed the final sultans of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 until its dissolution in 1922, is largely a tourist site, but it does also include the Istanbul offices of the Turkish president. The two Israelis were charged with political and military espionage.
Their release was ultimately secured through discussions between Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The latter credited his discussion with Herzog as kicking off the thaw in Turkish-Israeli relations which had been frigid since 2010’s Mavi Marmara incident, when Israeli security forces raided a humanitarian fleet headed to Gaza, killing 10 Turkish activists.
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Exclusive: Israeli Officials Harshly Critical of Steve Witkoff’s Influence on US Policy on Gaza, Iran, i24NEWS Told
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Amid growing disagreements with the Trump administration over the composition of the Board of Peace for Gaza and the question of a strike on Iran, officials in Israel point to a key figure behind decisions seen as running counter to Israeli interests: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The officials mention sustained dissatisfaction with Witkoff. Sources close to the PM Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Saturday evening: “For several months now, the feeling has been that envoy Steve Witkoff has strong ties, for his own reasons, across the Middle East, and that at times the Israeli interest does not truly prevail in his decision-making.”
This criticism relates both to the proposed inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s governing bodies and to the Iranian threat. A senior Israeli official put it bluntly: “If it turns out that he is among those blocking a strike on Iran, that is far more than a coincidence.”
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EU Warns of Downward Spiral After Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Greenland
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over US President Donald Trump‘s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.
“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”
Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.
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Israel Says US Gaza Executive Board Composition Against Its Policy
FILE PHOTO: Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer/File Photo
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that this week’s Trump administration announcement on the composition of a Gaza executive board was not coordinated with Israel and ran counter to government policy.
It said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would raise the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The statement did not specify what part of the board’s composition contradicted Israeli policy. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment.
The board, unveiled by the White House on Friday, includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Israel has repeatedly opposed any Turkish role in Gaza.
Other members of the executive board include Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process; an Israeli‑Cypriot billionaire; and a minister from the United Arab Emirates, which established relations with Israel in 2020.
Washington this week also announced the start of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s plan, announced in September, to end the war in Gaza. This includes creating a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in the enclave.
The first members of the so-called Board of Peace – to be chaired by Trump and tasked with supervising Gaza’s temporary governance – were also named. Members include Rubio, billionaire developer Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.