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An Israeli citizen was indicted Sunday for allegedly spying for Iran, with prosecutors accusing him of meeting Iranian agents in Türkiye and passing sensitive information about Israel’s military operations via Telegram, according to the Israeli media reports.
According to the Israeli State Prosecutor’s Office, the suspect was charged last Wednesday in the Central District Court in Lod with contacting a foreign agent and providing information to the enemy with intent to harm state security, an offense punishable by life imprisonment.
The accused immigrated to Israel from Iran in 1999 and maintained family ties in his birth country.
According to the indictment, he rekindled connections to Iran over a decade later during a trip to Türkiye, where he visited the Iranian embassy and inquired about visiting Iran.
He left the meeting with "official documents," though their significance was not detailed in court filings.
Between 2015 and 2025, the man maintained a romantic relationship with an Iranian woman residing in Iran. The couple communicated daily through Telegram, Google Meet, and WhatsApp and met several times in different countries, including Türkiye, Dubai, and Thailand.
Between Sept. 9 and 10, 2024, the defendant met in Türkiye with his partner and two Iranian regime operatives, "fully aware that they were hostile to the State of Israel," prosecutors stated.
During this meeting, Iranian agents provided the defendant with a specific Telegram username to maintain steady communication.
The woman arranged the meeting after being contacted by Iranian authorities, who requested that she facilitate the encounter between the agents and the suspect.
Following the meeting in Türkiye and continuing until his arrest on July 1, 2025, the defendant repeatedly contacted Iranian agents via Telegram, sometimes on his own initiative, to provide various pieces of information.
According to Israeli prosecutors, the accused informed Iranian agents that Iran's 2024 missile attacks had hit the Nevatim Airbase.
Around May 2025, approximately one month before Israel's air offensive against Iran, he warned his Iranian contact that Israel planned to attack Iran, including a commando operation targeting Iranian nuclear facilities.
The defendant also allegedly informed agents that "drones going to Iran from Israel were making their way to Iran via Azerbaijan," according to the indictment.
The suspect exploited his friendship with another Israeli man, identified only as "YN," who supposedly had ties to government figures and spoke Farsi fluently. The friend was separately in contact with someone presenting himself as an Iranian sailor providing intelligence that could aid Israel against Iran.
When the friend requested help translating correspondence with the sailor from Farsi to Hebrew, the defendant exposed the sailor to his Iranian handler, sharing the translated information and advising his contact to "keep an eye on him," per the indictment.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, more than 20 espionage cases involving Israelis spying for Iran have been uncovered by Israeli security forces.
Earlier this month, Israeli prosecutors filed an indictment against a 27-year-old man from Be'er Yaakov for carrying out dozens of tasks for an Iranian agent.
In May, two 24-year-old residents of Nesher were arrested on suspicion of gathering intelligence for Iran near the home of Defense Minister Israel Katz in Kfar Ahim.
Two days prior, police and Shin Bet security service arrested an 18-year-old resident of Yavne for collecting information about former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his security arrangements.
An Israeli source reported by Israeli media outlet Haaretz said in May that "A series of recent incidents indicate repeated efforts by hostile terrorist and intelligence entities to recruit Israeli citizens to carry out missions aimed at harming the security of the State of Israel and its residents."
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