The Haifa District Court sentenced an Arab Israeli man to five years in prison for providing Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah with photos and videos from sites around the country, local media reported Monday.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Mahmoud Jabarin, 37, from the town of Umm al-Fahm, was convicted under a plea bargain in which he admitted to contacting operatives from Iran's Lebanon-based Shiite proxy and materially aiding the organization.
Prosecutors said Jabarin maintained contact with two Hezbollah operatives dating back to 2018 and provided them with images of the Israel-Lebanese border fence, the Orot Rabin power station on Israel's coast, the Megiddo Prison, where most security prisoners are held, and other locations throughout Israel.
Hezbollah the published the images on its social media accounts as part of its propaganda campaign against the Jewish state. It attempted to intimidate by claiming how far it could penetrate into Israeli territory.
"The defendant agreed and acted on the request [of the two operatives] out of a desire to assist Hezbollah's media, propaganda and war effort against Israel," prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
The sentencing, which the defendant has 45 days to appeal, comes at a sensitive time.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Israel, Hezbollah and its Iranian paymasters have recently entered into a particularly acrimonious war of words amid an escalation of verbal posturing.
Responding to a threat from the terrorist group's leader Hassan Nasrallah who said Hezbollah would "inflict carnage on Israel's home front, Defense Minister Benny Gantz responded that an attack from the north would precipitate a massive response.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
