Five Israelis, Palestinians charged in Iran spy plot, Shin Bet says

Israel’s security service said it had foiled a plot by five Israelis and Palestinians recruited for Iran to spy on Israeli politicians, including the far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Two Israelis and three Palestinians were charged Thursday for their involvement in a “terror cell” operated by a person living in Jordan and working under Iranian instructions, Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, said.

Among other things, the five individuals are suspected of trying to gather intelligence on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, receiving instructions to assassinate former Knesset member Yehuda Glick and smuggling weapons, Israeli authorities said.

Ben-Gvir heads the far-right Jewish Power party and has provoked condemnation by the Arab world for visiting the Temple Mount while a minister. Glick, who represented Likud in the Knesset, became well known for advocating for Jews to have the right to ascend the Temple Mount. He has been repeatedly arrested for violating the regulation prohibiting Jews from praying aloud at the site.

The Haifa district attorney’s office filed charges against the two Israeli nationals: 23-year-old Hamad Hammadi from Nazareth and 18-year-old Yosef Hamad from the village of Muqeible. Hammadi was indicted for contact with a foreign agent, arson and assisting an illegal resident (a term usually used to designate Palestinians entering Israel without a permit). Hamad was indicted for arson.

The three Palestinians — 47-year-old Murad Kamamaja from the West Bank village of Kefar Daan, 34-year-old Hassan Mujarimah from the West Bank city of Jenin and 45-year-old Ziad Shanti also from Jenin — were charged in a military court. The Shin Bet said they were indicted for “serious security offenses.”

The Shin Bet said that Hammadi had coordinated with Shanti to help smuggle Palestinians into Israel, and that last March he indeed arrived in his car near the border with Jordan, where he collected five people whom he drove into Israeli territory. He was paid for this operation.

גורמי ביטחון:
הפרשה מראה את השיטה של איראן לגייס גורמים פליליים אזרחים ישראלים ערבים עם תז כחולה להציע להם הרבה כסף, עשרות אלפים כדי שיבצעו פעולות של איסוף מודיעין ואז לדרדר מצילום לפגיעה ביעדים.
התוכנית פגיעה בבן גביר היתה בחיתוליה ומעצר השבכ נועד לסכל את התוכנית. pic.twitter.com/UAR9LWyIsm
— Or Heller אור הלר (@OrHeller) September 27, 2023

The Shin Bet also said that Kamamaja and Mujarimah met last May with an Iranian operative based in Jordan who asked them to smuggle weapons from Jordan into the West Bank and Israel. He also asked them to vandalize and burn cars, gas stations and businesses in Israel, and to take pictures of Israeli politicians and police officers.

Following that encounter, Kamamaja and Mujarimah contacted Shanti, who in turn enlisted Hammadi. The latter was promised thousands of shekels for each car torched. He was also told that Iran was behind the plan. Together with Hamad, Hammadi torched four cars in the city of Haifa. The Shin Bet believes the operation was a test of sorts to show the Iranian operatives that Hammadi was able to deliver. It is possible that Hamad did not know about the Iranian connection.

The Shin Bet claims that Iran is attempting to enlist Israeli citizens, especially those with criminal records, to commit terrorist activities, mostly via existing criminal groups and in exchange for money.

US sanctions on Iran

Separately, the United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a network it said was helping to purchase sensitive components for Iran’s drone program. A statement issued by the US Treasury Department said five entities and two individuals based in Iran, China, Hong Kong, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates “involved in the procurement of sensitive parts for Iran’s one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program” were sanctioned.

The statement said that the network had facilitated shipments and financial transactions in support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ procurement of servomotors, a critical component in Iran’s Shahed-series UAVs. “Iran has been supplying Russia with Shahed-136 UAVs to support Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the statement added.