The scenes described this week by Israeli tourists whisked out of Turkey by secret agents to escape Iranian assassins sounded like something out of an action film.

Channel 13 News reported June 13 on a call received by an Israeli couple from a person described as a senior intelligence community official. “He asked us where we were. We said we were touring a bazaar. At first, we thought someone was pulling our leg, but then we realized this was serious. He asked us to stop where we were, avoid standing out and wait quietly at a certain corner. We asked to go back to our hotel to pick up our things, but we were told not to go there under any circumstances because terrorists were waiting there to kill us. Within 15 minutes, a van stopped next to us. There were at least 10 Israeli security people or agents inside. They told us that Iranians were waiting at the hotel to kill us and that we were going directly to the airport.” 

According to the report, the two were taken to Ataturk Airport, where they boarded a plane waiting to fly them to Israel. Back home, they went through a meticulous debriefing and were asked about all their contacts, calls and even random encounters in Istanbul.

The Israeli press has reported that several other tourists have been pulled out of Turkey in similar fashion in recent weeks. A top-level intelligence official confirmed the reports to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, adding, “The real drama is even bigger. Iran deployed several assassination squads in Turkey whose mission was to kill or kidnap Israelis at almost any cost. All of these attempts have been foiled so far, some of them at the very last minute.”