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, security service Shin Bet has said. Last week, the agency and Israel’s police said a 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.
In a statement sent to media after the wave of arrests, Iran’s UN mission did not confirm or deny seeking to recruit Israelis and said that “from a logical standpoint” any such efforts by Iranian intelligence services would focus on non-Iranian and non-Muslim individuals to lessen suspicion. At least two suspects were from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, police and the Shin Bet have said.
“You want to alert the public. And you also want to make an example of people that may also have intentions or plans to cooperate with the enemy,” he said.
Iranian intelligence agencies often find potential recruits on social media platforms, Israeli police said in a video released in November warning of ongoing infiltration attempts. The recruiting efforts are at times direct. One message sent to an Israeli civilian and seen by Reuters promised $15,000 in exchange for information, with an email and number to call.
Iran has also approached 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 counter-espionage efforts until 2007. Israeli authorities have said publicly some of the Jewish suspects were originally from Caucasus countries.
According to the investigation made public by the security services, he was found to have subsequently agreed to carry out an assassination of an Israeli personality, throw a grenade into a house and also look to obtain a sniper rifle, pistols and fragmentation grenades.