Four Suspects Including IDF Soldiers Charged with Espionage for Iran
The Haifa District Prosecutor's Office on Friday indicted three IDF soldiers and a civilian for contacting Iranian intelligence agents and transmitting surveillance materials; all four were approximately 17 at the time of the alleged offenses. The indictment states the defendants used Telegram from January to March 2025 to communicate with handlers operating under the usernames "NOVITAMIN" and "CLARK," transmitting photos, videos, and location data of sites including Haifa's Air Force technical school and Tel Aviv's Savidor Central railway station. Ynetnews reported that one defendant offered F-16 photographs to a handler in exchange for payment; the handler countered with a request for Iron Dome locations, which the defendant declined. The four were arrested in March in a joint operation by the Shin Bet,
Iran recruited these four before IDF enlistment and maintained contact through military training, a deliberate access-agent pipeline, not opportunistic exploitation. Handler tasking reveals collection priorities: Iron Dome location requests over F-16 photographs signal air defense suppression ranked above conventional order-of-battle data.
4 sources
- Four suspects, including IDF soldiers, charged with spying for Iran -
Ynetnews - Three IDF soldiers and a civilian set to be charged with pro-Iranian espionage -
The Times of Israel - Civilian, three IDF soldiers indicted for spying for Iran -
The Jerusalem Post - Civilian, three IDF soldiers charged with spying for Tehran -
Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)