Israeli police said Thursday they have arrested an Israeli couple on suspicion of spying for Iran, barely a week after detaining two groups allegedly working for Tehran.
“Iran’s efforts to recruit Israelis continue to be thwarted,” a statement from police and Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, said.
The statement alleged that the two Israelis, a couple from the central city of Lod, were involved in gathering intelligence on “national infrastructure, security sites and monitoring a female academic”.
“Rafael and Lala Goliev…residents of Lod, were arrested after acting on behalf of an Iranian cell that recruits Israelis from Caucasus countries to Israel.”
Police alleged that the pair were recruited by Elshan (Elhan) Agayev, an Azerbaijani national acting on behalf of Iranian authorities. It was not clear whether Agayev was based in Israel.
They alleged that Golevs conducted surveillance of sensitive Israeli sites, including the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, and collected intelligence about an academic working at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
Thursday’s announcement comes a little more than a week after Israeli security services said they had uncovered two other suspected spy rings.
On October 22, Israeli police said they had arrested a group of seven Palestinians from Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem who were suspected of planning an attack for Iran.
A day earlier, police said they had arrested seven Israeli citizens in the city of Haifa on suspicion of carrying out hundreds of spying missions on Iran’s orders.
Last week, two other Israelis were charged with various crimes after they were allegedly contacted by Iranian agents and asked to carry out spying missions.
In September, an Israeli named Mordechai Maman from the coastal city of Ashkelon was arrested on suspicion of being recruited by Iran to plot to assassinate top officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel is currently engaged in a multi-front conflict with Iran-backed groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and Houthi rebels in Yemen.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
