Crime

By Pesach Benson • July 17, 2025

Jerusalem, 17 July, 2025 (TPS-IL) — An Israeli soldier was arrested for passing information to Iran, authorities said on Thursday.

According to an indictment filed with the military court, the soldier gave “non-security information” to “Iranian elements” in exchange for a fee.

Specifically, the soldier is accused of transmitting videos of missile interceptions and photographs of missile landings and hits in Israel during the 12-day war with Iran in June.

Investigators from the Israel Defense Force’s Military Intelligence Service, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Police, stressed that the information he provided the Iranians did not reach him through his role in the army.

Authorities said the soldier knew he was dealing with Iranians.

Earlier on Thursday, the Police and Shin Bet announced the arrest of a Bedouin school teacher who sent covertly photos of Air Force jets at the Nevatim Air Force base in the Negev to an Iranian agent during the June war.

Tahani Abu Samhan, 33, a resident of the unrecognized Bedouin village of Abu Quwader, “was in contact with Iranian intelligence officials and carried out various security missions for them over the past year, fully aware that she was being operated by hostile foreign agents,” the Shin Bet said.

Samhan and the soldier are 34th and 35th Israelis charged with espionage on behalf of Iran in the last seven months.

Israeli Police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne recently told The Press Service of Israel that after agents make contact with an Israeli, “It starts out slowly, with small jobs, and slowly the money increases, and they are asked to do more severe crimes as time goes on.”

Many of the spies are first asked to spray specific graffiti messages. Assignments often escalate to hanging flyers, starting fires, then taking photos of shopping malls, infrastructure, bases or the homes of Israeli figures. In some cases, they are asked to kill someone.