Seven arrested in Jerusalem for planning with Iran to assassinate Israeli officials
Israeli security forces have arrested seven Jerusalem residents accused of plotting the assassination of Israeli officials and carrying out other attacks on behalf of Iran’s intelligence service, the Shin Bet (the Israeli counterintelligence service) has explained. and the police.
This is the fifth case involving assassination attempts directed by Iranian intelligence that has been thwarted by Israeli security services in the last month, according to the aforementioned statement. The seven suspects, residents of the majority-Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in Jerusalem, planned to carry out the assassination of a high-ranking Israeli scientist and the mayor of a major Israeli city that was not identified, according to the statement. “Scientists and mayors, as well as high-ranking members of the security establishment and other senior Israeli officials, are targets of attacks by Iranian elements,” a senior Shin Bet source said separately, citing information from intelligence services. security. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has not made any comment on the matter yet.
The investigation by the security services also establishes that the suspects were in charge of blowing up a police vehicle and throwing a grenade at a house with the promise of receiving 200,000 shekels (49,000 euros at the exchange rate), according to the statement. One of the suspects, a 23-year-old man, was in contact with a foreign entity. The individual later recruited a group of helpers who set fire to a vehicle in Jerusalem, painted graffiti in several locations and gathered intelligence information in Israel at the direction of Iranian officials abroad.
During the search of the suspects’ homes, security forces found 50,000 shekels (12,273 euros) in cash, a fake license plate of a police car and several credit cards. His detention has been extended until October 24 and the Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office is expected to file an indictment for “serious security crimes,” according to the statement.
On Monday, Israeli security services said they had dismantled a spy network that gathered information for Iranian intelligence, following another arrest in September of an Israeli national suspected of being involved in an Iranian-backed assassination plot against people prominent people, including the prime minister. Israel has a long history of intelligence operations in Iran, including the alleged assassination in July of Ismail Haniya, the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in a Tehran state guesthouse. Israel has not claimed responsibility for that murder. (Reuters)
