Two Israeli soldiers accused of spying for Iran

Two Israeli soldiers have been accused of spying for Iran while one operated the country’s Iron Dome air defense system, sharing highly classified footage of it in operation.

According to a joint statement by Israel police and Shin Bet, the two suspects had been lured by social media, as seen in previous cases.

"They understood that they were in contact with an Iranian operator, based, among other things, on their media publications, which revealed at the time the arrest and interrogation of Israeli citizens who were in contact with Iranian intelligence elements and carried out similar missions for them," the statement said.

The pair have been named as Yuri Eliaspov and Georgi Andreev, residents of Krayot in northern Israel.

Eliaspov, the main suspect, admitted that he sent his Iranian operator a video he recorded of the Iron Dome operating system. "I got into a difficult financial situation,” he told prosecutors.

Iranian spy plots in Israel increased 400% last year in the wake of the Gaza war, with dozens of cases in Israel foiled involving dozens more Israeli citizens. Some of the most serious included plots to murder the likes of Israel's Prime Minister and Defense Minister.

Superintendent Sarit Peretz, an investigation officer in the National Unit for the Investigation of Serious and International Crime in Lahav 433, said in a statement: "Yuri Eliaspov is charged with the offense of aiding the enemy in war, the most serious offense in the law book, the penalty for which is life imprisonment or death,” though Israel has only enacted the death penalty twice since its founding in 1948.

“Anyone who received Yuri's video [of the Iron Dome] and understands these systems could act against the State of Israel, which is very dangerous. The video contains very sensitive information," she added.

She said that Eliaspov claims only to have sent part of the video and not all of it. “Even the part he says he sent contains great danger,” she said.

Israel's Iron Dome air defense system is 90 percent effective and has protected the country from thousands of missile, rocket and drone attacks from Iran and its allies around the region such as the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Asher Ben-Artzi, the former head of Israel’s Interpol, said the cases show a constant pattern in how Iranian intelligence is working to recruit Israeli citizens.

“They manage to recruit Israelis, mainly from the weakest strata of society, to whom they promise to make easy and quick money. This affair that has now been revealed was a great success for them after they managed to locate a reservist stationed in a sensitive unit and the assessment of the security officials is that the information they provided did indeed cause damage,” he told Iran International.

“The fact that they gained access to IDF soldiers, even in reserve service, is very worrying.”

The two were lured like others in recent months, by initially being asked to spray ‘children of Ruhollah’ graffiti in Tel Aviv, referring to the original founder of the Islamic Republic.

Eliaspov then shared the opportunity with his friend Andreev, and convinced him it was easy money.

By the time he was caught, Eliaspov had earned $2,500, while Andreev only $50. Both have admitted they are guilty of the charges and remain in custody until the next hearing on Friday in Haifa.

The pair began communicating with the agent in late September and have been under investigation for two weeks. They were both discharged immediately from Israeli military service.