The military prosecution filed an indictment Thursday against two Israel Defense Forces soldiers serving as technicians in the Air Force, on suspicion of committing security offenses on behalf of Iranian intelligence operatives. The suspects were arrested in March.
One soldier was charged with aiding the enemy in wartime, providing information to the enemy, assisting contact with a foreign agent and additional offenses. The second soldier was charged with contact with a foreign agent, providing information to the enemy and other offenses.
The two, who were detained last month, told investigators that their contact with the Iranian handlers was severed after they refused to carry out missions involving weapons. However, even after the contact was cut off at the initiative of the handler, they allegedly continued trying to renew it for financial gain.
According to the indictment, over several months the two soldiers maintained contact with Iranian intelligence operatives and carried out various tasks at their direction in exchange for money. One of the soldiers also passed materials from his military training related to fighter jet systems to an Iranian agent, along with documentation of facilities and areas within a military base.
The case was investigated by the Shin Bet security agency, the Sharon district’s central police investigations unit and the Military Police’s special investigations unit. In a statement announcing the indictment, the Shin Bet, the IDF and the police “again warn Israeli citizens, including soldiers, against maintaining contact with foreign entities from enemy states, and certainly against carrying out missions for them in exchange for payment or any other benefit.”
In recent years, and especially since Operation Rising Lion, Iran has intensified efforts to recruit Israeli civilians within Israel. Dozens of cases have already been investigated and indictments filed. In one of the most prominent recent cases, four men from northern Israel — Ami Gaydarov, 22; Denis Kom, 24; Sergey Libman, 24; and Eduard Shovtiuk, 24 — were charged. Gaydarov was accused of manufacturing an explosive device intended to target former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and implicated the other three in assisting him.
First published: 18:04, 04.23.26