Turkish police have arrested a suspect believed to have been transferring money to operatives from Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency in Turkiye, the state-run news agency reported on Tuesday.
The suspect, identified as Liridon Rexhepi from Kosovo, entered Turkiye on August 25, and was detained last Friday and formally arrested on Tuesday, the Anadolu Agency said. The report said he had confessed during interrogation that he conducted the money transfers.
Since January, Turkish authorities have detained dozens of people, among them private investigators, on charges of collecting data on individuals, mostly Palestinians residing in Turkiye, for the Israeli intelligence.
Israel has not commented on the arrests in Turkiye.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been one of the strongest critics of Israel’s military actions there and has praised Palestinian Hamas militants as a liberation group.
In May, Turkiye halted all trade with Israel and has also applied to participate in a genocide case against Israel at an international court.