The bitter dispute between Turkey and Israel regarding the war against the terrorist Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the support provided by Erdogan to it, is not limited to the political-diplomatic level, but pits the secret services of the two countries, MIT and Mossad, against each other respectively.
The Palestinian who “hacked” the “Iron Dome”
The National Intelligence Service of Turkey (MIT) rescued Omar A. from possible death or kidnapping in an international operation and offered him protection as the famous Palestinian hacker was targeted by the Mossad in Turkey and Malaysia. He was responsible for disrupting Israel’s “Iron Dome” defense system.
The young man credited with breaking into Israel’s notorious “Iron Dome” air defense system has been wanted by Israel for a long time.
After a three-year investigation, Israeli intelligence identified “breaks” originating from Irone Dome’s Omar A in 2015 and 2016 that helped the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, launch rocket attacks into Israel.
Omar, a computer programming graduate of the Islamic University of Gaza, was the architect of a hacking software for the Gaza Ministry of Interior that can penetrate mobile phones running on Android. This put him on the Mossad’s list as a potential target.
Seeking to lure him, they offered him a job through a Norwegian software company in 2019, but Omar suspected Israeli involvement and turned the offer down.
The Palestinian hacker “moves” in 2020 to Turkey
The young man moved to Istanbul in 2020, but the Mossad was also chasing him in Turkey. MIT was also aware of his residence in Turkey. In April 2021, an agent named Raed Ghazal contacted him, claiming to be the human rights director of the French company Think Hire, again offering Omar a job. Ghazal “interviewed” Omar twice in Istanbul, trying to convince him to join the company.
After Ghazal, Omar Salabi, another Mossad agent, contacted him on behalf of the French “company”. He offered Omar $10,000 to code software for them.
Omar did the work and was paid by the French company. In June 2022, another Mossad agent using the name Nikola Radonij contacted Omar, offering him a job in either Brazil or Istanbul.
He was accompanied by three other people who worked for the Israeli secret services and posed as a group of “programmers”. They tried to convince Omar to join the team for an online project.
Radonitz tried to convince him to travel abroad for a project, as the Mossad intended to take Omar to Tel Aviv for questioning. Omar was about to accept the offer when MIT contacted him and warned him against the plan. But the Mossad agents did not give up.
The interrogation by the Mossad and the involvement of the MIT in his rescue
Omar A. decided to vacation in Malaysia in September 2022. MIT’s Istanbul branch of counterintelligence stepped in again and installed tracking software on his cellphone after warning him of possible kidnapping while abroad.
Indeed, Omar A. was kidnapped days later in Kuala Lumpur and taken to a remote cabin about 50 kilometers (31.06 miles) from the Malaysian capital. There, he was interrogated and tortured by suspects working for the Mossad. Members of the Mossad in Tel Aviv participated in the interrogation via video call.
He was questioned about the methods he used to infiltrate Iron Dome and the Android-based hacking software he developed.
When MIT was informed of the kidnapping, Turkish officials contacted Malaysian authorities and through tracking software, helped them locate the location where Omar A. was being held. Malaysian security forces stormed the home and rescued Omar A.
The hacker’s return to Turkey
Eleven suspects were arrested in connection with his abduction. Omar A. returned to Turkey and was taken to a safe house provided by MIT. The organization also coordinated the arrest of Foad Osama Hijazi with counter-terrorism police in Istanbul. Hijazi was one of the Mossad agents who worked with Nikola Radonij.
Mossad’s action abroad
In 2018, Fadi al-Batsh, a research engineer believed to be linked to Hamas, was murdered near his home in the Malaysian capital by two fleeing gunmen.
While his family has accused Israel’s Mossad spy agency of carrying out the assassination, then-Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied Israeli involvement.
Israel is widely believed to have killed a number of Palestinian activists in the past, many of them abroad. In 1997, in Jordan, Mossad agents tried and failed to kill the then political leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, by spraying poison in his ear.
The Mossad is also believed to have been behind the 2010 assassination of top Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabuh in a Dubai hotel. Israel has never confirmed or denied its involvement in Mabhuh’s murder.
MIT “dismantles” foreign spy networks in Turkey
Turkish intelligence earlier revealed similar Mossad plans to spy on Palestinians in the country.
In July, the media reported that MIT exposed a “ghost” core of 56 people who were spying on non-Turkish nationals for the Mossad.
Documents from MIT revealed that spies collected biographical information on foreign nationals through an online routing method, tracked vehicle movements via GPS, broke into password-protected networks based on Wi-Fi devices and found private locations.
The “core,” made up of citizens from various Middle Eastern countries, used multiple fake websites in multiple languages, mostly Arabic, to obtain technical locations and real IP addresses, MIT found.
Turkish media also reported in May that MIT destroyed another “core” of 15 Mossad agents based in Istanbul and made six arrests. The agents were also found to have been trained in Europe by Mossad operatives and tasked with monitoring a company and 23 individuals with business ties to Iran.
Last December, Turkey revealed another seven-person group that spied on Palestinians for the Mossad, which used its information to launch online smear campaigns and threats against Palestinians.
MIT, working with Turkish police, has uncovered a number of espionage networks in recent years, including one working for Russia, and thwarted an Iranian plot to kill Israeli citizens in Turkey.
The operations also led to the discovery of attempts by Iranian intelligence agents to kidnap Iranian dissidents who had fled to Turkey.”
Turkey knows how to hack the Iron Dome
Apart from the above “films” that we mentioned above and which are impossible to verify, one thing that definitely emerges is that the Turks providing “hospitality” and “security” to the Palestinian hacker, are able through him to know ways of “hacking” him “Iron Dome” while it is considered certain that he is now working on their behalf.
