Israel’s police have arrested an Israeli citizen accused of being recruited by Iranian intelligence to plot the assassination of top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The arrest was announced in a joint statement by the police and Shin Bet on Thursday.
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“An Israeli citizen was recruited by Iranian intelligence to promote assassinations of Israeli figures. He was smuggled twice into Iran and received payment for carrying out missions,” the statement said.
The statement indicated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, and several other top officials were among the intended targets.
The Israeli citizen, “a businessman who lived in Turkey for an extended period,” maintained connections with Turkish and Iranian individuals who introduced him by phone to an Iranian businessman called Eddie, the police said.
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According to the police, the Israeli—reported by local media as a Jewish resident of Ashkelon—first traveled to Iran in May 2024, where he met someone named Eddie after experiencing “difficulty leaving” the country.
He was also introduced to a figure called Hajjah, identified as an Iranian security operative.
During this visit, he was instructed to undertake security missions in Israel, which included transferring “money or a gun,” taking photos of crowded public locations, and issuing threats to other Israelis allegedly recruited by Tehran.
In August, the investigation found, the arrested man was smuggled to Iran in a lorry. While there “he met with additional Iranian intelligence agents and was asked by them to carry out terrorist activities for Iran on Israeli soil, including promoting assassination attacks”.
Some of the planned assassinations were described as acts of revenge for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Both Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of being responsible for Haniyeh’s death, although Israel has not commented on the matter.
The suspect was also reportedly tasked with additional missions, such as recruiting Mossad agents to act as double agents, according to police.
After requesting a $1 million advance, the Israeli was given 5,000 euros for attending the meetings and was told he would be contacted for future tasks.
“This is a very serious case that exemplifies the enormous efforts of Iranian intelligence agents to recruit Israeli citizens to promote terrorist activities in Israel”, a senior Shin Bet official was quoted as saying.
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