Allisreal News
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military personnel and schoolboys carry an Iranian flag and a flag of Lebanon’s Hezbollah before an anti-Israeli protest to condemn Israel’s military attack on Lebanon during Friday prayers ceremonies in downtown Tehran, Iran, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto)
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) on Monday said it has uncovered and prevented several plots aimed at assassinating Israelis in recent weeks, including high level officials.
Details of several of the assassination attempts have not been released due to ongoing investigations.
Strikingly, the Shin Bet said that most of the plans involved the recruitment of Israeli citizens to participate in the plots, as revealed in the recent case of Moti Maman, the Israeli businessman recruited by Iranians while in Turkey. Maman was recently indicted for several security offenses and his lawyer said that he has been cooperating completely with investigations.
The Shin Bet also said that Iran is spending significant resources in trying to “remotely recruit” Israeli citizens via online methods. Iranian operatives have targeted Israelis on various platforms of social media, including groups related to finance, crypto currencies, and job hunting.
The Israelis are often paid to do various jobs, such as hiding money or cellphones in various places throughout Israel, distributing flyers, making graffiti, or even engaging in vandalism, such as burning vehicles, or harming people.
These tasks often start off with smaller “innocent” tasks, sometimes by Iranians pretending to be expatriates who need simple “jobs” done for them while they are away. Over time, the nature of the jobs becomes more dangerous and harmful to the security of Israel and its citizens.
The Shin Bet has announced several such Iranian plots over the past few months, in which Iranian agents tried to recruit or trick Israelis into carrying out intelligence missions for the Iranian government. In one instance, the security agency discovered a scheme involving Israelis being recruited to gather intelligence on high-profile Israeli figures.
A couple weeks ago, Shin Bet announced that it had thwarted a plot to assassinate a former security official in Israel. At that time, Israeli media reported that the intended target was a former IDF chief of staff, with some claiming it was Aviv Kochavi.
The security agency also revealed that it had prevented a similar attack against former IDF Chief and Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon the year before. After the revelation by Shin Bet, Ya’alon quipped, “It’s not the first time someone has tried to kill me.”
In that operation, the cell involved in carrying out the attack had placed explosives with a camera for remote viewing in order to be sure they got the intended target.
Several suspects were arrested after the bomb exploded on September 15, 2023, without injuring anyone. The suspects were all Israeli citizens, who were found to be in possession of incendiary and camouflage material at the time of their arrest. All those arrested knew they were working for a foreign agency, most likely Hezbollah or Iran.
The Shin Bet asked the public to be vigilant and to take extra caution “in any case where suspicion arises, in accordance with detailed procedures, and especially when the sums involved are large and are not adequate to the nature of the requested tasks, or alternatively, if the execution of unusual tasks is requested.”
“Whenever such a doubt or suspicion arises, it must be reported immediately to the security services,” the group said.
