Iranian intelligence operatives are using mass online phishing campaigns to recruit Israelis for espionage and sabotage, casting a wide net that has ensnared dozens of suspects from across society, according to a leading Israeli legal affairs reporter.
“The Iranians are phishing not with a fishing rod but with a net,” said Gilad Cohen, legal affairs and Jerusalem correspondent for ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth. “They cast in all directions and try to catch as many as possible.”
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(Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme LeaderWANA (West Asia News Agency)Handout via REUTERS, shuuterstock, Planet Labs Inc/Handout via REUTERS)
According to Cohen, Iranian handlers send large volumes of messages online, often starting with seemingly minor tasks meant to test or gradually draw in targets. Early assignments can include hanging flyers, he said, before escalating to more serious actions such as setting vehicles on fire.
Israeli authorities have filed 35 indictments on espionage-related offenses, involving about 60 defendants. Some cases involve organized cells of seven people or more. Despite growing public awareness and repeated prosecutions, police say the phenomenon has not stopped.
The most common charge is contact with a foreign agent. Among those indicted are Israeli reservists and career military officers, including one Iron Dome soldier who was asked to photograph the air defense system, Cohen said.
The suspects do not fit a single profile. “It can be a yeshiva student from Beit Shemesh, young men from east Jerusalem, or new immigrants from Azerbaijan,” he said.
All of the suspects received payment, usually through money changers or cryptocurrency. In one case, a man from the Golan Heights initiated contact with Iran on his own. In most cases, however, the relationship began through phishing attempts, a method Cohen said can trap even otherwise law-abiding citizens.
“What worries Israelis is that this is not some distant country we barely know,” he said, referring to Iran’s central role in Israeli political discourse. “We went to elections over Iran, and in the end soldiers or yeshiva students are willing to act in its service.”
Cohen said the broader Iranian strategy is to create chaos within Israeli society. While some plots have included requests to assassinate senior figures such as the prime minister or a nuclear scientist at the Weizmann Institute, Israeli security services have so far thwarted such efforts.
Even so, he said, Iranian operatives aim to inflame internal divisions. “They want to exploit protests and everything that is tearing Israeli society apart from within,” Cohen said. “That is one of their central objectives.”
First published: 09:39, 02.08.26