Another espionage case — again with Ra’anana at the center: The State Attorney’s Office has filed an indictment with the Jerusalem District Court against Moshe Lahovitz, a 21-year-old from Jerusalem, accusing him of maintaining contact with an Iranian intelligence operative and carrying out tasks for payment, including in Jerusalem and Ra’anana. Prosecutors requested he be held in custody until the end of proceedings.
The indictment was filed a day after details were revealed of a “serious security affair,” in which, at Iran’s direction, a young man from Haifa allegedly manufactured explosives intended to target former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who lives in Ra’anana.
According to the new indictment, filed by attorney Yishai Ziegman of the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office, Lahovitz made contact with a person identifying himself as “Michael” while searching for work. During their exchanges, he was asked to carry out various tasks, including documenting and photographing sites across Israel, in return for payments totaling thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.
The indictment states that at a certain stage Lahovitz realized the contact was operating on behalf of Iran, but continued the relationship and carried out assignments, including during Operation Rising Lion.
He is charged with contact with a foreign agent, passing information to the enemy and other offenses.
According to the indictment, Lahovitz came across a job posting in a Telegram group offering high pay and contacted the advertiser, who identified himself as “Michael.” The man spoke with Lahovitz about his personal life and told him he “likes religious Jews.” He later asked him to film Jerusalem’s Liberty Bell Park, and Lahovitz sent the footage via Telegram.
On May 6, 2025, a week before the launch of Operation Rising Lion, the same operative asked Lahovitz whether he could obtain a car. Although he did not have a driver’s license, Lahovitz agreed. The agent then sent him a map marking a route in Ra’anana and instructed him to drive along it while recording the trip on his phone.
During the war last year, “Michael” asked Lahovitz about additional locations he could document. Lahovitz suggested filming an area known as Pardes Morasha near the Morasha junction, and did so. For these activities, he received $3,276 in cryptocurrency, in addition to about $1,800 he had been paid earlier.