Turkish intelligence dismantles global cyber espionage network linked to terrorist organizations
Updated 13 August 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: The Turkish National Intelligence Organization, or MIT, dismantled a global cyber espionage network that had stolen personal data from thousands of individuals, including those in Turkiye, Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday.
In a coordinated operation with the Turkish Gendarmerie General Command and the National Cyber Incident Response Center, MIT acted on an investigation led by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, according to security sources.
The operation led to the arrest of 11 suspects, who are now imprisoned. The network was found to have international ties and was sharing stolen personal data with various entities, including terrorist organizations. MIT’s long-term surveillance revealed that this data was being used to support terrorist activities.
Numerous websites linked to the network have been shut down, and the seized data is currently undergoing thorough examination. The investigation remains confidential and ongoing.
MIT has reiterated its commitment to protecting sensitive personal data and plans to expand its efforts in combating cyber espionage, particularly focusing on international connections that threaten Turkiye’s national security.
EU fears Israeli-occupied West Bank becoming a 'new Gaza'
Borrell said Israel was opening “a new front... with a clear objective: to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza — in rising violence, delegitimising the Palestinian Authority and stimulating provocations to react forcefully”
Updated 9 sec ago
AFP
CAIRO: The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warned on Tuesday that increased violence in the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war erupted meant it risked becoming “a new Gaza.”
Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and is separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, has flared alongside the war that began after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Borrell said Israel was opening “a new front... with a clear objective: to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza — in rising violence, delegitimising the Palestinian Authority and stimulating provocations to react forcefully.”
Israel was also “not shying away from saying to the face of the world that the only way to reach a peaceful settlement is to annex the West Bank and Gaza,” Borrell added at a ministerial meeting of the Arab League in Cairo.
He accused “radical members of the Israeli government” of trying to make it “impossible to create a future Palestinian state,” which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several cabinet members have painted as a threat to Israel.
Some Israeli ministers have recently called to increase military operations in the West Bank.
“Without action, the West Bank will become a new Gaza,” Borrell said.
“And Gaza will become a new West Bank, as settlers’ movements are preparing new settlements,” he told the meeting.
“The international community deplores, feels, and condemns, but finds it hard to act.”
Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank hit a record in 2023, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din, and the European Union has said last year saw the most settlement building permits issued in decades.
Some 490,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in settlements which are illegal under international law, alongside three million Palestinians.
Since the Gaza war began on October 7, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank during the same period, Israeli officials say.
On Tuesday, Israel’s military said it was “highly likely” that its forces “unintentionally” shot dead a US-Turkish activist last week, during a protest in the West Bank against settlement expansion.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was killed on Friday in the town of Beita, the site of weekly demonstrations against Israeli settlements.
Palestinians in Gaza see themselves as ‘zombies’: UN official
He added that “a lot of people have nothing to eat,” noting that many had no access to electricity or even a bed
Updated 25 min 57 sec ago
AFP
BRUSSELS, Belgium: Palestinians in Gaza feel they are “zombies” left to fend for themselves, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian Territories said on Tuesday.
“’We’re two million zombies living on our own. All the ties are broken.’ This is how the people of Gaza see themselves,” Muhannad Hadi said, citing a Palestinian he met during one of his many trips to the Gaza Strip.
Hadi was in Brussels for a series of meetings with European officials as the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, was on a visit to the region, including Egypt and Lebanon.
“So anything that you take for granted, or anything you took for granted, or you worked for yesterday in your life, it’s not there for the people of Gaza, for the majority of the people of Gaza,” Hadi said during a visit to Brussels.
He added that “a lot of people have nothing to eat,” noting that many had no access to electricity or even a bed.
“No one should suffer because of war. No one should suffer because of the wrong politics. No one should suffer because of the failed politics that we are seeing,” the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process said.
He accused politicians around the world of “not doing the job they should be doing.”
“That’s why we don’t have a ceasefire, and that’s why we don’t have a solution to their Gaza crisis,” he added.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, including some hostages killed in captivity, according to Israeli official figures.
Militants seized 251 hostages during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,020 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Polio vaccination starts in north Gaza despite obstacles
Updated 32 min 40 sec ago
Reuters
GAZA: A campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza against polio began on Tuesday although health and aid officials said the operation was complicated by access restrictions, evacuation orders, and shortages of fuel.
The campaign in north Gaza, the part of the territory hardest hit by Israel’s 11-month military offensive against Hamas, follows the vaccination of more than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza earlier this month.
Medical staff had started administering vaccines in the north despite a dire need for fuel, among other challenges, said Dr. Moussa Abed of the primary care unit in Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Vaccination centers are in areas that are militarily very active, challenging to reach, and isolated if things go wrong, said Sam Rose, a deputy director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
“There are some nerves, but we’ll have to make it work,” he texted Reuters.
On Monday, Israel stopped a convoy that included vehicles and fuel for the vaccination campaign as well as a World Health Organization team trying to get to Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, and the mission had to be aborted, the WHO’s Tarik Jasarevic said.
Israel also issued an evacuation order in north Gaza, the first in more than two weeks, that included areas that are part of humanitarian pause zones agreed upon for the polio vaccinations, according to a UN update on Monday.
“The centralization of services in the south makes it extremely difficult for us to get fuel, to get access to vaccinations, and to all other logistics,” Mahmoud Shalabi of Medical Aid for Palestinians, a UK-based charity, said via a spokesperson, adding there was no fuel available for mobile vaccination teams.
Hossam Medhat Saleh, a Palestinian father, said he had to walk with his three children to reach a vaccination clinic because no transportation was available.
“The dangers of the road are big — as you can see, the destruction, the streets, and infrastructure, in addition to the missiles and cannons (shelling) which continue,” he told Reuters, standing on a dusty street surrounded by smashed cars and buildings.
The campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza under 10 years of age began on Sept. 1, following confirmation by the WHO last month that the type 2 polio virus had partially paralyzed a baby, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The campaign in north Gaza aims to conclude a first vaccination round, with a second set to commence after a month.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza on Oct. 7 last year after Hamas led a shock incursion into southern Israel.
The resulting assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, and reduced much of the territory to rubble.
Killing of US-Turkish citizen shows high price of expressing solidarity with Palestinians in occupied West Bank
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi believed shot by Israeli troops while taking part in peaceful protest against settlement expansion
International community has condemned the wave of attacks on Palestinians and their allies since Oct. 7 last year
Updated 47 min 38 sec ago
Jonathan Gornall
LONDON: On Saturday afternoon, two young women lay side by side in a hospital morgue in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Unknown to each other but united in death, one was the victim of the increasingly unbridled Israeli settler violence in the West Bank.
The other had died at the hands of the Israeli military while protesting against that very same violence.
The first to die was Bana Amjad Bakr, a 13-year-old girl killed on Friday night in her bedroom at home in Qaryut, a village 15 km south of Nablus. She was reportedly hit by a stray bullet fired by Israeli forces.
According to Yesh Din, an Israeli non-profit organization that advocates for the human rights of Palestinians living under occupation, Bakr was fatally wounded after dozens of settlers, “protected” by Israeli soldiers, stormed her village.
The teenager was taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, where she was pronounced dead.
Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas (3-R) stands in front of the bodies of Turkish-American Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26 (L) and 13-year-old Palestinian Bana Baker at a hospital morgue in Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 7, 2024. (AFP)
But the tragedy of her passing and her family’s grief would have gone unnoticed by the wider world — were it not for events that unfolded the following day.
On Saturday morning, a Turkish-born American citizen was shot in the head by Israeli troops in the village of Beita, just 8 km north of where Bana had been mortally wounded in Qaryut.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old from Washington state, had been taking part for the first time in the regular weekly protest organized by the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement against the town’s expanding Jewish settlement.
Just three months ago, Eygi had graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she had studied psychology and Middle Eastern languages and cultures.
Palestinian activists lift a banner and portraits of slain Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi during a funeral procession in Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 9, 2024. (AFP)
In a statement, her family said she had been active in pro-Palestinian protests on campus and had felt morally compelled to travel to the West Bank and “stand in solidarity with Palestinian civilians.”
According to eyewitness accounts, Eygi and other protesters had taken refuge in an olive grove after Israeli soldiers fired tear gas as the peaceful protest began to disperse.
“The demonstration, which primarily involved men and children praying, was met with force from the Israeli army stationed on a hill,” said a spokesperson for ISM.
“Initially, the army fired a large amount of tear gas and then began using live ammunition.”
It was then that Eygi, who appeared to be deliberately targeted by an Israeli sniper, was shot in the back of the head.
Israeli forces take position following a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Qaryut on September 15, 2023. (AFP)
ISM denied “repeated false claims” that demonstrators had been throwing rocks. “All eye-witness accounts refute this claim,” said the spokesperson.
“Aysenur was more than 200 meters away from where the Israeli soldiers were, and there were no confrontations there at all in the minutes before she was shot.
“Regardless, from such a distance neither she nor anyone else could possibly have been perceived as posing any threat. She was killed in cold blood.”
It was Eygi’s death, and not Bakr’s, that prompted international outrage and global headlines. A spokesperson for the UN secretary-general demanded a “full investigation of the circumstances” and accountability for the death of the dual American-Turkish citizen.
The US government also called for an investigation, with a National Security Council spokesperson saying the White House was “deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen.”
Members of the Palestinian security forces carry the body of 13-year-old Bana Amjad Bakr during her funeral in Nablus. (AFP)
Meanwhile, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it held the Israeli government responsible for Eygi’s death and pledged to bring those who killed her to justice.
Although such killings add impetus to the growing international alarm over Israel’s behavior, in Gaza and the West Bank, the death of a single foreign activist at the hands of Israeli soldiers frequently garners more global coverage than multiple killings of Palestinians.
As ISM pointed out, “the human rights activist, who we consider a martyr in the struggle, was the 18th demonstrator to be killed in Beita since 2020” — the youngest of whom was just 13 years old.
Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of Nablus, paid his respects to Eygi and Bakr in an emotional visit to the morgue in Rafidia hospital on Saturday. “Both were killed by the same bullets,” he said.
“We call on the international community to stop the insane war on Palestine. Bullets do not differentiate between activists and a Palestinian child.”
People check a burnt car a day after an attack by Jewish settlers on the village of Jit near Nablus that left a 23-year-old man dead and others with critical gunshot wounds, on August 16, 2024. (AFP)
Over the years, several American nationals have lost their lives while protesting in solidarity with Palestinians. One of the most infamous cases occurred more than 20 years ago, in March 2003, when another member of ISM was killed.
Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old activist from Washington state, was crushed by an armored military bulldozer during a protest against the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians do not forget their friends. Many children born after Corrie’s death carry her first name and a street in Ramallah is named for her. But until now it has been difficult to conclude that sacrifices such as hers have not been in vain.
The marked difference in the response of the US government then and now shows how less tolerant global opinion has become toward Israel’s behavior.
US CITIZENS KILLED BY ISRAELIS
May 2003: Rachel Corrie, 23, crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer during Gaza protest.
May 31, 2010: Furkan Dogan, 19, shot by Israeli troops during Gaza Flotilla raid.
Jan. 13, 2022: Omar Assad, 78, died in Israeli custody in the West Bank.
May 11, 2022: Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, shot by Israeli troops while reporting in the West Bank.
Jan. 20, 2024: Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, 17, shot by Israeli gunmen in the West Bank.
Feb. 10, 2024: Mohammad Ahmad Khdour, 17, shot by Israeli gunmen in the West Bank.
Sept. 6, 2024: Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, shot by Israeli troops during West Bank protest.
Back in 2003, 77 members of the US Congress signed a resolution “expressing sympathy for the loss of Rachel Corrie in the Palestinian village of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on March 16, 2003,” calling on the US government “to undertake a full, fair, and expeditious investigation” into her death.
No such investigation followed. But following the killing of Eygi this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “when we have more info, we will share it, make it available and, as necessary, we’ll act on it.”
Eygi is at least the third US citizen known to have been killed in the West Bank since October. In February, Palestinian-American Mohammad Ahmad Alkhdour, 17, was reportedly shot twice by Israeli forces northwest of Jerusalem.
In January, another 17-year-old Palestinian-American national, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, was killed in similar circumstances.
A Palestinian girl holds posters of US peace activist Rachel Corrie during a protest marking the anniversary of her death at a refugee camp in Rafah on March 16, 2013. (AFP)
The settler movement, ultimately responsible for the deaths at the weekend of both Bakr and Eygi, may yet prove to be the undoing of an Israeli government that has not only given it free rein to expand settlements, but has also armed it to the teeth.
Toward the end of last month, it emerged that the head of Israel’s security agency had written to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing the extremist settler movement of terrorism.
Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet, warned that the increasingly violent actions of the “hilltop youth” were out of control and “a large stain on Judaism and on all of us.”
He added: “The damage to Israel, especially at this time, and to the majority of the settlers is indescribable: A loss of global legitimacy even among our best friends.”
Bar blamed nationalist politicians, in particular Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. By encouraging and arming the extremists, they were “willing to jeopardize the state’s security and its very existence” in the pursuit of their ideological ambitions, he said.
Palestinian medics transport a man who was injured in a reported attack by Israeli settlers in the village of Qusra, into Rafidia Hospital in Nablus on August 31, 2024. (AFP)
International Crisis Group recently reported there had been a record 1,246 attacks on Palestinians by settlers in the West Bank since Oct. 7, causing 21 deaths, hundreds of injuries, and, as part of a deliberate policy to sabotage livelihoods, the systematic destruction of 23,000 trees.
“Settler violence is at an all-time high, with Israeli settlers harassing, terrorizing and killing Palestinians across the West Bank in greater numbers and with greater frequency and fervor,” Mairav Zonszein, the ICG’s senior Israel analyst, said in a statement on Friday.
“They are emboldened by a government committed to deepening control over the West Bank and foiling a Palestinian state.”
She added: “To stem settler violence, the US and other Western countries should target not only individual settlers but state entities and policies that bolster the settlement enterprise.”
But in weakening support for Israel in the West, ultimately it may be the reckless behavior of the settlers and their political supporters — and the death of foreign activists like Eygi — that will backfire on Netanyahu and his government.
A 13-year hiatus ends: Turkish foreign minister attends Arab League summit
Ankara sees Fidan’s visit as a strategic move to strengthen ties with bloc members while exploring new avenues for cooperation
Country’s previous military operations in Libya, Somalia and Syria have strained relations with the Arab League, which has frequently criticized such actions
Updated 10 September 2024
MENEKSE TOKYAY
ANKARA: As Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends the 162nd Ordinary Council of Foreign Ministers of the Arab League in Cairo on Tuesday, attention is focused on how this will impact Turkiye’s ongoing efforts to further normalize relations with its Arab neighbors after years of strained ties.
It has been 13 years since a Turkish foreign minister attended a summit of the 22-member Arab League. Ankara sees the visit as a strategic move to strengthen Turkiye’s regional ties with the members on a more institutionalized basis, while exploring new avenues for cooperation and mutual benefit.
The country’s previous military operations in Libya, Somalia and Syria have strained relations with the Arab League, which has frequently criticized such actions.
Fidan’s presence at the summit is particularly noteworthy because, as the former head of intelligence, he was instrumental in initiating the normalization process with Gulf countries in 2020.
Since becoming foreign minister last year, he has continued his efforts to improve relations with the region, holding several meetings with Arab diplomats and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Political consultations were also held in Ankara in February between Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Ahmet Yildiz and Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ambassador Hossam Zaki.
More recently, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi made a long-awaited visit to Turkiye after years of bitter rivalry.
In response to the Gaza conflict, Turkiye has joined a joint contact group formed at a summit of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to seek an end to the violence.
On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed an alliance among Islamic countries to counter Israeli “expansionism.”
Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow at The Washington Institute, told Arab News: “There seems to be a wide consensus among Arab League members that the Syrian regime should be rehabilitated and integrated into the international system. One piece of this is Turkish-Syrian normalization.
“Key members of the Arab world, including those that have financial ties with Turkiye such as Saudi Arabia and UAE, have long insisted that Ankara also normalize ties with Egypt, which has happened, but I think that those two countries are also driving the normalization process between Ankara and Damascus.”
In the meantime, Turkiye and the Gulf Cooperation Council are currently negotiating a free trade agreement.
Syria’s return as a full member of the Arab League last year and Damascus’s approval of Turkiye’s participation in the summit are also significant for the latter’s ongoing normalization talks with Syria since the countries broke off relations in 2011.
While Turkiye has improved relations with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, its efforts to normalize ties with Damascus are progressing gradually.
Galip Dalay, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, thinks Fidan’s presence at the summit reflects the level of normalization achieved between Turkiye and the Arab world so far.
“Recent developments had tested this to some extent, not least the Gaza war. Rather than undermining it, the war has underpinned this normalization process as Turkiye has pursued a policy prioritizing Arab agencies on the subject,” he told Arab News.
Dalay thinks this also signifies revisiting Turkiye’s pre-Arab Spring regional policies, favoring good relations with Arab governments and elites.
“It indicates a gradual, economy-focused regional policy centered on positive interactions with Arab elites. Syria, in any case, had no luxury to reject Turkiye’s participation in the Summit,” he added.
According to widespread rumors over the summer, Turkiye is expected to extend an invitation to Syrian President Bashar Assad “any time” for possible talks to restore bilateral relations. Alternatively, both parties could meet in a third country. Speaking at the NATO summit in July in Washington, Erdogan said he had assigned Turkiye’s foreign minister to follow up on this issue.
In the meantime, the country’s spy chief, Ibrahim Kalin, recently visited Libya to help overcome the ongoing political impasse over oil exports.
“By the final months of 2020, not only Ankara but also all the capitals of the Middle East, including Tel Aviv, began initiating normalization processes with one another. This shift was a natural consequence of a pragmatic reassessment of the region’s political climate, which has been tense since 2011,” Betul Dogan-Akkas, assistant professor of international relations at Ankara University’s international relations department, told Arab News.
“Minister Fidan, as the chief of intelligence, has played a key role in shaping strategic normalization efforts with the Gulf, Egypt and Syria. His actions as foreign minister reflect this new era in regional diplomacy,” she added.
“During a critical visit to Ankara last week, President El-Sisi emphasized Egypt’s eagerness to collaborate with Turkiye to strengthen regional peace, including addressing conflicts in Libya and Syria. Initially, his comments were interpreted as an attempt to leverage Cairo’s role in Turkiye-Syria cooperation.”
According to Dogan-Akkas, combining these dynamics suggests that Turkiye has proposed a new diplomatic approach to the Arab world, one that seeks to move beyond political controversies and establish strategically significant diplomatic channels since the end of 2020.
“If Turkiye successfully navigates this process and underscores its constructive role in the region, it could lead to a long-term strengthening of relations with both Syria and Egypt,” she said.
