Israel has arrested two soldiers on suspicion of spying for Iran in return for money, its police force said on Monday.
The primary suspect was said to have served in the IDF’s Iron Dome air defence unit and is alleged to have begun passing on classified material to an Iranian handler in September 2024.
He is alleged to have recruited a friend who served in the military’s Tel Aviv headquarters and to have put him in touch with an Iranian contact.
Both suspects are also alleged to have sprayed pro-Iran graffiti and hung banners in Tel Aviv carrying the slogan, Children of Ruhollah, referring to Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of Iran after the 1979 revolution.
The two men, both 21, were charged with transferring classified information and aiding the enemy during wartime, police said.
Israeli authorities have arrested a number of alleged Iranian spies in recent months.
In October last year, seven Israeli citizens were arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran on Israeli army bases and gathering information on the Iron Dome missile defence system.
The system plays a vital part of Israel’s air defence capabilities and has been used to take down missiles trained on the country’s civilian centres.
Rockets are fired from Gaza and intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system – Fatima Shbair/AP
The Shin Bet security agency and Israeli police said they dismantled a “spy network” involving Israeli citizens who were gathering “sensitive information on IDF bases and energy infrastructure” for Israel’s arch enemy.
The suspects were all Jewish Israelis from Haifa and other areas in northern Israel. They were identified as Azis Nisanov, Alexander Sadykov, Vyacheslav Gushchin, Yevgeny Yoffe and Yigal Nissan, and two minors who could not be named.
In September last year, a 73-year-old Israeli was arrested over an Iranian plot to kill Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, in an Iran-backed assassination plot.
Moti Maman, from Ashkelon, southern Israel, was smuggled twice into Iran, where talks were held over paying him as a hitman, according to Israeli security officials.
Yoav Gallant, the former defence minister, and Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, were also allegedly discussed as targets in addition to Mr Netanyahu.
Iran’s recruitment of Israeli citizens has caused great concern in the Israeli security establishment.
Israeli intelligence has also thwarted a number of plots against Israeli citizens abroad in recent years, some of which Iran was allegedly behind.
