CNN NEWS | Published December 13, 2024
The alleged operatives were neither highly trained nor seemed especially suspicious to the people who knew them in their day-to-day lives. Many of them appeared to struggle financially.
And yet, Israeli authorities allege that the images they captured of the base provided Iran with valuable targeting intelligence.
The Israel Police arrested the suspects in October, a group of seven Israelis living in Haifa, northern Israel, representing one alleged cell.
They are among more than 30 Israelis arrested by Israeli authorities over the past year for allegedly carrying out missions for Iran – with the accusations ranging from photographing military bases to plotting to kill senior Israeli officials.
It is an unprecedented number, according to Israel Police Superintendent Maor Goren, who oversees counterintelligence investigations.
“If we go check the last years – the last decades – we can count on two hands how many people got arrested for this,” Goren said.
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SOURCE: www.cnn.com
RELATED: Iran managing to recruit surprising number Jewish Israelis for spying ops
Recruits are initially tasked with carrying out innocuous tasks for money; later missions to assassinate high-profile figures have so far been foiled by security services
Moti Maman, accused of being recruited by Iran to advance an assassination plot of Israel’s prime minister, defense minister, or the head of the Shin Bet, is seen in a court in Beersheba on September 19, 2024. (Dudu Greenspan/Flash90)
THE TIMES OF ISRAEL | Published December 13, 2024
Israel’s recent arrests of almost 30 mostly Jewish citizens who allegedly spied for Iran in nine covert cells has caused alarm in the country and points to Tehran’s biggest effort in decades to infiltrate its arch-foe, four Israeli security sources said.
Among the unfulfilled goals of the alleged cells was the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and former military officials, while one group gathered information on military bases and air defenses, the Shin Bet security service has said. Last week, the agency and Israel’s police said a father and son team from a northern Druze village had passed on details of Israeli force movements including in the Golan Heights where they lived.
The arrests follow repeated efforts by Iranian intelligence operatives over the past two years to recruit ordinary Israelis to gather intelligence and carry out attacks in exchange for money, the four serving and former military and security officials said.
The sources asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“There is a large phenomenon here,” said Shalom Ben Hanan, a former top Shin Bet official, referring to what he called the surprising number of Jewish citizens who knowingly agreed to work for Iran against the state with intelligence gathering or planning sabotage and attacks.
Shin Bet and the police did not respond to requests for comment. Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond to questions.
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SOURCE: www.timesofisrael.com
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