Two Israelis suspected of spying for Iran were arrested in recent months, the Israel Police and Shin Bet announced in a joint statement Tuesday, as a prosecutor’s declaration for coming indictments was filed against the pair.
Holon resident Maor Kringel, 26, was arrested in August after seven months of alleged espionage in the service of an Iranian agent, with whom he had been in contact since the start of the year. The other suspect was named as Tal Amram, also 26 and a resident of the city, whom Kringel recruited on behalf of the Iranians.
Police say that Kringel took photos of military bases and public locations in Israel, and even initiated contact with his handlers during the 12-day war with Iran this past June, with the intent of carrying out additional missions. According to unsourced Hebrew media reports, he was at the time serving as a reservist soldier in the Israel Defense Forces.
Investigators learned that Kringel had been in contact with individuals linked to VIPemployment, a front organization that seeks to recruit Israelis online into spying for the Islamic republic.
Kringel allegedly managed to recruit Amram into spying on Iran’s behalf. They were both paid in cryptocurrency, as has been the arrangement in other cases of Israelis working for Iranian intelligence.
The two were arrested as part of the same investigation conducted by the Shin Bet and the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit.
An indictment against both men will be filed by state prosecutors in the coming days, police said.
Unsourced Hebrew media reports said the pair were paid several thousand dollars by the Iranians.
Channel 12 reported that Kringel was initially not permitted to meet with an attorney and broke down during questioning, admitting to the accusations against him. Later, he met with an attorney and, since then, has changed his version of events and is refusing to cooperate with investigators.
His attorney, Nir David, told Channel 12 that the accusations against his client are “far-fetched and have no basis.” David also claimed that the affair is a case of mistaken identity.
The police and Shin Bet repeated their warning that “Israelis should not have contact of any kind with entities from foreign countries or entities that they are unable to identify, and should not carry out activities for them in exchange for money or any other reason.”
The Holon pair is one of dozens of Israeli citizens who have been arrested and charged with spying for the Islamic Republic.
Last week, dual American-Israeli citizen Yaakov Perl was charged with spying for Iran, including surveilling ex-IDF chief Herzi Halevi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Perl is a member of the Satmar Hasidic sect and apparently harbored a deep antipathy toward Zionism, which drove him to reach out to Iranian operatives online.
A week earlier, the Jerusalem District Court convicted Elimelech Stern, a 22-year-old ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student from Beit Shemesh, of spying for Iran.
Dozens of cases have come to light over the past two years in which Iranian agents have successfully recruited Israelis into espionage schemes via social media, specifically the Telegram messaging app. Most of the accused spies start out with innocuous tasks that gradually grow into more serious offenses, like intelligence gathering and assassination plots.
The growing number of Iranian agents has even prompted Israel to open up a new wing for them in Haifa’s Damon prison.
The unlikely operatives, from diverse walks of life, are usually ordinary civilians contacted by Iranian intelligence officers online. The effort appears to be part of a mass recruitment scheme by Tehran to gather intelligence on Israel’s alleged nuclear and military sites, as well as key Israeli figures such as defense officials and top scientists.
In June, Israel carried out sweeping strikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, saying they were an immediate and existential threat to the Jewish State. Iran responded by firing missile barrages at military sites and Israeli cities.