The Haifa District Attorney’s Office on Sunday indicted two Israelis, ages 14 and 16, from Kiryat Motzkin for allegedly carrying out paid assignments for an Iranian agent, including photographing sites, spraying anti-government graffiti and trying to recruit additional minors.
An Israel Police investigation led by the Asher Police District’s Central Unit, in cooperation with Lahav 433’s Barak Unit and security agencies, uncovered “several minors” from the Haifa and Haifa’s Krayot bayside suburbs who maintained “ongoing contact with a foreign agent working on behalf of Iranian intelligence,” the police said in a statement.
The probe began with the arrest of one of the minors at Ben-Gurion International Airport upon his arrival in Israel, on suspicion of espionage, the police said.
Prosecutors say that the older suspect was first contacted by an Iranian handler in June after he looked for work in a Telegram group. He was approached by a person who identified himself as “Daniel.” The assignments allegedly began with seemingly innocuous tasks such as distributing fliers before escalating, and the suspect later recruited the second minor.
Together they received payments totaling thousands of shekels in exchange for carrying out various tasks.
One of the minors, according to Ynet, photographed shopping centers in the Herzliya and Tel Aviv areas and provided details about entrances, exits and security guards. At one point, he deleted videos he had sent because he feared they could be used in a terrorist attack, but he remained in contact with the agent, prosecutors said.
The indictment jointly charges them with an offense of defacing property, the report read. One of them is additionally charged with one count of establishing contact with a foreign agent and three counts of providing information for the benefit of the enemy.
In addition to the property-damage offenses, the second defendant is also charged with aiding contact with a foreign agent, the report added.
“The Israel Police and security agencies will act with determination, using every tool at their disposal—both overt and covert—against any attempt by enemy states and hostile elements to recruit Israeli citizens, particularly minors, and exploit them to harm the security of the state,” the police said.
“The police call on parents to remain highly vigilant regarding their children’s activity on social media and to immediately report any unusual or suspicious contact.”
