Seven Azerbaijani immigrants to Israel have been accused of working for Iran for two years, carrying out 600 operations, including sharing information on the air bases targeted in this month’s ballistic missile barrage from Iran.
They were also accused of sharing information about Israel’s air defense system, the Iron Dome, and the Hadera power plant, sharing intelligence directly with Iran.
The team, who lived in northern Israel, had been paid thousands of dollars, also in crypto, according to Israel’s Shin Bet.
Israel Police named the Jewish suspects as Aziz Nisanov, Alexander Sedikov, Vyacheslav Goshchin, Yevgeny Yufa, Yigal Nisan and two minors.
“The investigation revealed that for over two years, the suspects have been carrying out a series of different security missions for the Iranian intelligence agencies, under the direction of two agents from the Iranian intelligence - Alkhan and Oran, while the members of the infrastructure are aware that the information they pass on to the agents harms the security of the state, and in some cases can even assist the enemy in a missile attack,” the statement detailed.
The group carried out hundreds of information gathering tasks on IDF bases throughout the country, with an emphasis on air force and navy bases, ports, locations of Iron Dome defense systems and energy infrastructures.
“The activity included photographing and documenting the various sites that the members of the infrastructure handed over to the agents,” the statement added, the team given advanced and dedicated equipment that they had purchased ahead of time, all under the guidance of the Iranian agents.
The cell was also asked to collect information about a number of Israeli citizens with the view of them being future targets.
An indictment is expected to be filed by the prosecutor's office in the coming days.
Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence analyst, said it is likely communication from Iran was done in Azeri language. "It is one of the tools of Iran's Unit 840 and IRGC Unit 4000," he said. "But how they managed to work under the radar for two years is something crazy," he said.
Israel’s state attorney's office stressed that "this is one of the most serious cases investigated in recent years."
Asher Ben Artzi, Israel's former head of Interpol, told Iran International: "I never in my life thought I would see something like this. Assisting an enemy during war, I am in shock."
After decades in the security service, he said the incident will send shockwaves through the tight-knit country of just 10 million. "It's a betrayal," he said. "It's the worst thing that a citizen can do.
Ben Artzi said the operation highlighted the sophisticated nature of Iranian intelligence, targeting "weak links" in Israel, immigrants who are more economically challenged and less integrated into Jewish life.
"They have blood on their hands," he said, as he says the cell gave information about the elite Golani unit's army base attack by Hezbollah this month, which led to the deaths of five soldiers with dozens more injured.
"I'm not sure this is the end of the story," Ben Artzi warned, expecting more such cases in the future.
It’s the latest such case in a series over recent weeks. While Iran has been trying to recruit Israelis for over a decade, the incidence of arrests has increased since the Gaza war when Iran-backed Hamas invaded Israel. Since then, Iran's proxies have been targeting Israel across its borders.
Most recently, arrests were made in two cases of Russian-Israeli citizens linked to Iran. They, like the Azerbaijanis, had come to Israel under the law of return which allows Jews around the world to immigrate to the world’s only Jewish state.
Yaron Binyamin, from unit Lahav 433, told Ynet News that "this is one of the most serious security incidents that have been investigated here,” adding that “there is a very high possibility that the main clause will be aiding the enemy in war, for which the penalty is death or life imprisonment.”
He said that the barrage of 181 ballistic missiles was able to have impacts due to the intelligence shared by the Azerbaijani team whose motive was “a thirst for money”.
The arrest of the suspects took place during a photo mission in the south of Israel. Binyamin said the relationship with Iran was managed through a Turkish intermediary named Alhassan.
He added that all the suspects were aware that they were working for Iran. "They knew they were carrying out the tasks for an enemy country, so the punishment expected of them will be particularly severe.”
Minister Micky Zohar called for the threat of the death penalty as the state faces a new and unprecedented threat from within.
On Monday he told Channel 12 in Israel "the phenomenon of traitors to the country and harming Israel's security for the sake of money while we are fighting for our future .... requires the application of extremely harsh measures, including a death penalty law for aiding the enemy in wartime."
In 1954, Israel abolished the death penalty for murder but kept it in place for war crimes, though since the establishment of the state in 1948, has enacted the death penalty only once, for Nazi Adolf Eichmann.