The Shin Bet Security Agency announced on Tuesday it exposed an attempt by Hezbollah to recruit Israeli Arabs from the Galilee.
Shin Bet officials said that two women from the town of Majd al-Krum were investigated at the beginning of June after meeting with a journalist from Lebanon who tried to recruit them to the terrorist group.
The journalist, Beirut Hamud, is a former Israeli who also lived in the northern Arab community before relocating to Lebanon in 2013, where she resides with her husband, Bilal Bizari.
Hamud, reportedly, met with the two Israelis in Turkey last December.
"Beirut was interrogated by security authorities in 2013 on suspicion she contacted Hamas activists, who she met in conferences held in Morocco in 2008 and in Tunisia in 2012," said the officials. "After her interrogation in 2013, Beirut left Israel and settled in Lebanon, where she married Bizari."
"Following Beirut's contact with the suspects and following a joint meeting of the three in Turkey in December 2019, the two were interrogated by the Shin Bet on suspicion that during the visit, Beirut and her husband attempted to recruit them to Hezbollah ranks.
As part of the investigation, we confirmed the suspect's ties with Hamud and received information about the meeting and how Hezbollah is acting through Hamud and her husband in order to recruit more Israelis for terrorist activities."
"The Shin Bet will continue to work resolutely to monitor and thwart any terrorist or spying activity by Hezbollah. We take the exploitation of Israeli citizenship to aid terrorist and espionage activities very seriously."