ISTANBUL, Jan 2, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Turkey announced on Tuesday it had

detained 33 people suspected of planning abductions and spying on behalf of
Israel's Mossad intelligence service.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the suspects were rounded up in raids
across Istanbul and seven other provinces.

It was not immediately clear if they were Israeli nationals or locals
allegedly working with Mossad.

Yerlikaya's office released video footage showing armed security service
agents breaking down doors and handcuffing suspects in their homes.

The Istanbul public prosecutor's office said 13 additional suspects remained
at large.

The raids came weeks after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned of "serious
consequences" should Israel attempt to target figures from Palestinian
militant group Hamas living or working in Turkey.

"There is an insidious operation and sabotage attempts being made against
Turkey and its interests," Erdogan said after the raids were announced.

"We will definitely destroy this game," he said in televised remarks.

Relations between Turkey and Israel imploded following the outbreak of the
war in Gaza nearly three months ago.

Erdogan has turned into one of the world's harshest critics of Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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 in Gaza.

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.

The president's ruling Islamic conservative AKP party 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.

- End of thaw -

The Gaza war ended a gradual thawing in Turkish-Israeli relations that
culminated with the reappointment of ambassadors in 2022.

Israel and Turkey resumed long-stalled talks about a major Mediterranean Sea
natural gas pipeline project that could have reshaped geopolitical alliances
across parts of the Middle East.

Turkey won words of gratitude from Israel in 2022 for detaining a group of
Turkish and Iranian nationals were allegedly planning to murder and kidnap
Israeli tourists in Istanbul.

Erdogan and Netanyahu met briefly on the sidelines of a United Nations
meeting in New York in September and were discussing holding a formal summit
this year.

The Turkish MIT intelligence service conducts periodic raids against
suspected Israel operatives working in major cities such as Ankara and
Istanbul.

Most are accused of conducting surveillance work on Palestinians living in
Turkey.

Istanbul served as one of Hamas's foreign political offices until the
outbreak of the Gaza war.

Turkey informally asked Hamas leaders to leave, days after militants
conducted raids into southern Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths
of around 1,140 people -- most of them civilians -- according to an AFP tally
based on official Israeli figures.

The Islamists also took around 250 people hostage. Israeli officials believe
more than half of them remain in Gaza.

The Gaza health ministry says Israel's relentless military campaign, which it
says is aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed around 22,000 people in Gaza
since October 7-- mostly women and children.

UN agencies have voiced alarm over a spiralling humanitarian crisis facing
Gaza's 2.4 million people, who remain under siege and bombardment, most of
them displaced and huddling in shelters and tents, amid dire food shortages.