The Turkish intelligence agency MIT claimed that after months of covert surveillance, it had uncovered a "ghost network" of 56 operatives operating in the country in the service of Israel's Mossad and tracking non-Turkish citizens. According to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, seven of them were arrested while the Turkish authorities claim the detainees confessed to the crimes they were charged with.

According to the Turks, the 56 operatives were linked to nine different networks, all of which were monitored by the Mossad from Tel Aviv, and had the ability to operate in the international arena. Documents from Turkish intelligence revealed that the agents gathered information about foreigners through various surveillance methods, vehicle movements using GPS, and hacking into password-protected networks using WiFi and location tracking devices.

In an intelligence operation, a major Mossad network was apprehended in Turkey. This network consisted of both Arab & Turkish agents, who were actively involved in gathering intel on Turkey's defense technology & plotting assassination of certain Arab leaders residing in Turkey. pic.twitter.com/22vBrOD3B2

— CTMC (@OfficialCTMC) July 3, 2023

The activists also physically followed various targets and filmed meetings, in an operation that, according to the report, "was overseen by an Israeli of Arab origin, Suleiman Agbariya." The network included citizens from several countries in the Middle East and used various fake websites, in several languages, especially Arabic to obtain locations and IP addresses. All communication between Mossad agents in Turkey and abroad was done through cell phone lines which were their only use, and which are owned by people with false identities in Spain, England, Sweden, Germany, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Belgium.

One of the leaders of the network, a Mossad agent named "Shirin Aliyan" whose real name the MIT was unable to discover, used a German phone line to order a Palestinian named "Khaled Nijim" to set up several websites. These sites were set up specifically to lead specific targets to them, and by clicking on the links their devices would be exposed to a virus and thus the network could penetrate their mobile phones.

With the Jenin operation underway, interesting timing for #Turkey to reveal it had uncovered #Israel's Mossad operatives. Among their targets was a Hezbollah building in Beirut where senior military and political figures live.https://t.co/1PAEtWdWSQ

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) July 3, 2023

According to MIT, the unit of the espionage network stationed in Istanbul received cyber studies and technical support from 24-year-old Parihanshi Patel Kulhari, who owns a cyber company in Tel Aviv. Kulhari, who was in regular contact with Mossad agents, explained to them how to hack into the phones of the targets, and these articles would cause them to be clicked.

In addition, Turkish intelligence discovered that the Mossad had sent operatives of Arab origin from Istanbul to Lebanon and Syria, to gather intelligence and mark targets so that armed drones would hit them. They discovered, according to the Turkish claim, the exact coordinates of a building manned by Hezbollah personnel, as well as the identities of senior military and political officials who live on the third floor of the same building.