Israel’s arrest of about 30 mostly Jewish citizens allegedly spying for Iran in nine secret cells has sparked concern in the country and is Tehran’s latest attempt in decades to infiltrate its arch enemy, four Israeli security sources said. indicates the greatest effort.
Security service Shin Bet has said that among the alleged cells’ unfulfilled goals were the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and former military officers, while one group collected information on military bases and air defenses. Last week, the agency and Israel’s police said a father and son team had described Israeli force activities near where they lived, including in the Golan Heights.
The four serving and former military and security officials said the arrests followed repeated attempts over the past two years by Iranian intelligence operators to recruit ordinary Israelis to gather intelligence and carry out attacks in exchange for money.
The sources asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Shalom Ben Hanan, a former top Shin Bet official, said, “There is a huge phenomenon here,” he said, referring to the astonishing number of Jewish citizens who deliberately defected to Iran against the state by gathering intelligence or planning sabotage and attacks. Had agreed to work for. ,
The Shin Bet and the police did not respond to requests for comment. Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions.
In a statement sent to the media after the wave of arrests, Iran’s UN mission did not confirm or deny the demand to recruit Israelis and said that “from a logical point of view” any such efforts by Iranian intelligence services would be against non-Iranians. And will focus on non-Muslims. To reduce suspicion of individuals.
Police and Shin Bet have said at least two of the suspects were from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community.
Unlike Iranian espionage operations in previous decades, which recruited a high-profile businessman and a former cabinet minister, the new alleged spies were largely people from the margins of Israeli society, including recent immigrants, an army deserter, and a convicted sex offender. Sources, court records and official statements show.
Shin Bet stated that most of their activity was limited to spraying anti-Netanyahu or anti-government graffiti on walls and damaging cars.
However, the arrests of so many Jewish Israelis, in addition to Arab civilians, and the scale of involvement have caused concern in Israel at a time when it is at war with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah remains fragile. .
On October 21, the Shin Bet said that the espionage activities were “among the most serious known activities by the State of Israel.”
The arrests also follow a wave of attacks and attempted kidnappings linked to Tehran in Europe and the United States.
Ben Hanan said the unusual decision to provide detailed public details of the alleged plots was a move by Israel’s security services to signal both Iran and potential saboteurs inside Israel, that they would be caught.
“You want to alert the public. And you also want to make an example of people who may have intentions or even plans to collaborate with the enemy,” he said.
Israel has scored major intelligence successes over the past few years in its shadow war with its regional enemy, including reportedly killing a top nuclear scientist. An active military official said Israel had “so far” thwarted Tehran’s efforts to respond with the recent arrests.
Iran has been weakened by Israeli attacks on its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon and the fall of Tehran’s ally, former President Bashar al-Assad, in Syria.
social media recruitment
Israeli police said in a video in November warning of ongoing infiltration attempts that Iranian intelligence agencies often seek out potential recruits on social media platforms.
Recruitment efforts are sometimes direct. A message sent to an Israeli citizen and seen by Reuters promised $15,000, an email and a number to call in exchange for information.
Iran has also contacted expatriate networks of Jews from Caucasus countries living in Canada and the United States, said one of the sources, a former senior official who worked on Israel’s counterespionage efforts until 2007.
Israeli officials have publicly stated that some of the Jewish suspects were originally from Caucasus countries.
Recruited individuals are first assigned innocuous-seeming tasks in exchange for money, the former official said, before handlers gradually coax specific information on targets, including individuals and sensitive military infrastructure, based on the threat of blackmail. Let’s demand.
An Israeli suspect, 30-year-old Vladislav Victorson, was arrested on October 14 along with his 18-year-old girlfriend in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv. He was sentenced to prison in 2015 for having sex with minors under the age of 14, according to a court indictment at the time.
An acquaintance of Victorson told Reuters that he had told her that he had talked to Iranians using the Telegram messaging app. He said that Victorson had lied to his bosses about his military experience. The acquaintance declined to be named citing security fears.
Victorson’s lawyer, Igal Dotan, told Reuters he was representing the suspect, adding that the legal process would take time and that his client was being held in difficult conditions. Dotan said he could only respond to the current case and had not defended Victorson in earlier trials.
Shin Bet and police said Victorson knew he was working for Iranian intelligence, which included spraying graffiti in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park, hiding money, posting flyers, and burning cars, for which he was fined. More than $5,000 were received.
According to the investigation made public by the security services, it was found that he had subsequently agreed to carry out the assassination of an Israeli personality, throw a grenade into a house, and obtain a sniper rifle, pistol and fragmentation grenade.
Security services said he recruited his girlfriend, who was tasked with recruiting homeless people, to photograph the demonstrations.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
