A Jerusalem woman was sentenced to two and half years in prison Sunday for working to recruit Israelis and Palestinians on behalf of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group and the Iranian army.
Yasmin Jaber, the 26-year-old resident of the Old City of Jerusalem and former staffer at the National Library in the capital, was apprehended in September last year by the Shin Bet domestic security service along with several acquaintances from East Jerusalem and Ramallah, who are suspected of having been involved in the secret cell.
The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Jaber following a plea agreement in which she was convicted of offenses including contact with a foreign agent, membership in a terrorist organization and unlawful exit from the country. She was also fined NIS 5,000.
According to the indictment, Jabar was contacted by a Hezbollah operative - with whom she later had a romantic relationship - in December 2015 after attending a Palestinian youth conference in Lebanon called "Return to Palestine."
To maintain the confidentiality of her identity, she was given an operational nickname by the unit – “Racheel.”
During another visit to Lebanon in 2016, Jaber was introduced to a man known as "Fares Awda," a senior operative in a joint Hezbollah-Iranian terror unit.
Awda is actually Hezbollah operative Jaafar Kabisi, who is known to have been involved in other attempts to recruit assets in Israel for terrorist activity.
Following her recruitment by Hezbollah, Jaber was in secret contact with an operator via coded messages on social media.
She also attended meetings with Hezbollah and Iranian operatives in Turkey, during which she was instructed by Ranad Wahba, a Hezbollah operative in the joint terrorist unit who goes by the operational nickname “Wafaa.”
Jaber was directed to recruit other activists in Israel who would serve in a squad under her command. Hezbollah emphasized the importance of recruiting elements from among Israeli Arabs, especially women, who would use their ability to move about freely in Israel to carry out attacks.
According to the indictment, the defendant knowingly and illegally left Israel for Lebanon, knowingly had contact with foreign agents without a reasonable explanation, was a member of a terrorist organization, took part in the organization’s activities and carried out activities for the organization.
"This Shin Bet investigation is the product of a lengthy intelligence operation to locate those suspected of being recruited by Hezbollah. It is another step in the counterterrorism efforts carried out in the past year against Quds Force and Hezbollah's attempts to recruit Israeli Arabs," a senior Shin Bet official said in a statement.