<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Turkey today announced the detention of 33 people suspected of planning abductions and spying on behalf of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said the suspects were rounded up in raids across eight provinces in and around Istanbul.</div><div><br></div><div>It was not immediately clear if they were Israeli nationals or locals allegedly working with Mossad.</div><div><br></div><div>“We will never allow espionage activities to be conducted against the national unity and solidarity of our country,” Yerlikaya said on social media.</div><div><br></div><div>Yerlikaya’s office released video footage showing armed security service agents breaking down doors and handcuffing suspects in their homes.</div><div><br></div><div>The Istanbul public prosecutor’s office said 13 additional suspects remained at large.</div><div><br></div><div>Relations between Turkey and Israel imploded following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war nearly three months ago.</div><div><br></div><div>Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned into one of the world’s harshest critics of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.</div><div><br></div><div>The Turkish leader last week compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and demanded that Israel’s Western allies drop their support for the “terrorism” being conducted by Israeli troops.</div><div><br></div><div>Erdogan has also recalled Ankara’s envoy to Tel Aviv and pushed for the trial of Israeli commanders and political leaders at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.</div><div><br></div><div>The president’s ruling Islamic conservative party AKP also led tens of thousands of protesters out on the streets of Istanbul on Monday for one of Turkey’s biggest anti-Israel rallies of the entire war. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>