Seven Israeli Jews, including two minors aged 16 and 17, as well as a father and son, have been in custody since September on suspicion of serious espionage for Iran in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars. On Monday, a prosecutor's statement was submitted against them with a request to extend their detention until the end of the proceedings, while the security establishment is still investigating how they operated for two years under the radar of the Shin Bet, IDF, police, and Mossad.

On Friday, the prosecution is expected to file an indictment against them in the Haifa District Court for a series of serious security offenses.

The suspects are Aziz Nisanov, Alexander Sadikov, Yigal Nisan, Vyacheslav Gushchin, Yevgeny Yoffe (and two minors). They are all Israeli Jews who immigrated from Azerbaijan. The adults among them did not serve in the IDF and were not employed at security facilities that they documented as part of their espionage activities. They are residents of the northern area of Krayot and Haifa, who received their citizenship under the Law of Return and through other methods that are still under investigation.

The seven are expected to be charged with aiding the enemy during wartime, an offense punishable by death or life imprisonment. The police reject the assessment that the seven were part of Hamas's decision to invade the border communities on October 7, but emphasize that "every missile fired towards the country in the last two years from Gaza, Lebanon, or Iran reached places they photographed and sent to the Iranians, especially in the last year."

Among other targets, the suspects photographed the Golani training base, where a Hezbollah drone struck and killed four IDF soldiers.

The investigation reveals that this is an espionage case, directed by two Iranian agents, which lasted about two years but was exposed a few months ago following information received by the Shin Bet. Due to the real concern that the espionage efforts would harm Israelis, the investigation of the case became public before the completion of the covert investigation against them. The seven were arrested on September 19. "This is one of the most serious events investigated ever," the head of the security division at Lahav 433 Major Crimes Unit Chief Superintendent Yaron Binyamin said. "It seems we have too many such people in the country, and it's very troubling."

From the investigation details, it emerged that the seven carried out between 600 and 700 espionage missions for Iran over two years. They documented sensitive security facilities, military bases, and human targets, the last of which was the commander of the Nevatim base and his son.

According to investigators, in the Iranian attack that took place on Oct. 1, 2024, Iran launched ballistic missiles across Israel towards targets that the seven had documented, including the Nevatim and Ramat David Air Force bases and the Mossad headquarters in Glilot. Additionally, it was revealed that after the missile attack, the seven were sent by Iran to check the accuracy and damage caused to improve in the future.

The police and Shin Bet are still investigating whether the seven collected and surveilled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in Caesaria, which was targeted by a Hezbollah drone late last week.

In their investigation, the seven said they "became addicted to the money paid to them" totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars transferred to them in cryptocurrency, in an encrypted manner, through exchange stores in the country, and even several times through Russian couriers who came to the country and transferred the funds to them in meetings they held with them.

"We know about the systematic way in which the group operated," Chief Superintendent Binyamin said. "We caught dozens of documents listing which facility to photograph, which facility to gather information on, and how much money they were supposed to earn from it. The method of operation was receiving a mission, such as photographing, driving to the location, unloading from the vehicle, taking a high vantage point, photographing, and transferring the documentation in short ranges to Iran using encrypted software."

It also turns out that the group's leader was recruited in Turkey in the past and had already activated Israelis in other cases that were recently exposed. Unlike other cases, this involves espionage that lasted about two years. It should be noted that the Iranians do not work directly with Israelis, and to recruit them, they operate through intermediaries. In this case, too, the Iranians used a Turkish intermediary named Al Hassan, who had already activated Israelis in short espionage missions in the past. As far as is known, arrests related to the case have recently been made in Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Details of the investigation reveal that the seven knew at some stage or another that the materials they collected were being transferred to Iran. The severity of the acts became clear during the overt investigation and in the covert wiretapping placed on them. "We clearly understood that they were thirsty for missions because they were thirsty for money. They asked each other 'So when is the next mission'. Sometimes they performed three or four missions a day," Binyamin said.

"The method was to receive a mission in an ascending order. Two years ago, they received simple missions and then it gradually increased. This is an exceptional event by any measure. I don't know of a terror cell that operates systematically and primarily for such a long period and executes. I don't know whether to be happy or sad on this day, on one hand, there's satisfaction, on the other hand, it's very troubling in what reality we live."

Three of the seven were caught red-handed while they were near the home of the commander of the Nevatim base in southern Israel, and were on a mission to monitor him and his son. "This was the mission that led to the decision to break into the investigation because we didn't want to take the risk of harm to human life. They were directed by the Iranians on which day and at what time to photograph the home of the Nevatim commander. This was supposed to happen at the time his son was expected to leave the house," Binyamin said, adding that unlike other cases where contact with the Iranians was, among other things, through social networks, in this case, the contact with them was physical. "The investigation material is crazy," he adds.

A senior Shin Bet official said, "As part of the investigation, many materials were seized that were collected by the members of the infrastructure and transferred to Iranian agents, including photographs and videos of many IDF bases across the country, ports, energy infrastructures in Israel, all while the State of Israel is fighting on several different fronts. The assessment is that the activities of the infrastructure members led to security damage to the state's security."

The police said the following in a statement: "During the overt investigation, the severity of the events and their scope were revealed, which are among the most serious that the State of Israel has known. The suspects acted with knowledge of their actions and out of greed for money - and harmed the State of Israel and its citizens."

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A senior official in Hungary's governing party acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that the government purchased a powerful Israeli-made spyware tool, which was allegedly used to target journalists, businesspeople and an opposition politician.

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Lajos Kosa, chairman of parliament's Committee on Defense and Law Enforcement, confirmed to journalists following a closed committee session that Hungary's Interior Ministry had bought the military-grade spyware Pegasus, produced by Israel-based NSO Group.

It was the first time a Hungarian official openly acknowledged the government's use of the malware, which infiltrates phones to collect personal and location data and can surreptitiously control the phone's microphones and cameras.

An investigation by a global media consortium published in July said that Pegasus was used in Hungary to infiltrate the digital devices of a range of targets – including at least 10 lawyers, one opposition politician and several government-critical journalists.

Subsequent investigations by Hungarian investigative journalism outlet Direkt36 have suggested that at least two publishers of government-critical media, as well as a former state secretary, were also targeted with the software.

Kosa, a vice-president of Hungary's governing Fidesz party, insisted that Hungary's security services and Interior Ministry had acted legally in every case of surveillance, receiving permission either from courts or the Ministry of Justice.

But opposition lawmakers have demanded an inquiry into the government's use of Pegasus, and complained that the findings of two special committee sessions examining the case – including Thursday's meeting of the Committee on Defense and Law Enforcement – had been classified by the governing party until 2050.

The alleged use of the malware against critical journalists in Hungary comes amid enduring condemnation of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban from the European Union, of which Hungary is a member.

Orban's critics say he has systematically wrested Hungary's media into government control, and brought the country under increasingly autocratic rule.

In October, a spokeswoman for an EU fact-finding delegation to Hungary told journalists that the government's refusal to confirm or deny whether it was responsible for the spying was "of great concern for the European Parliament," but that there was "a clear sign that it was done by the government itself."

On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced it would place new export limits on Israel's NSO Group, the maker of Pegasus, saying its tools have been used to "conduct trans-national repression."

But Kosa told journalists on Thursday that he saw no reason to object to the government's use of Pegasus. According to Hungarian state news agency MTI, he argued that "tech giants conduct much wider surveillance" on their users than the Hungarian government had.

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According to three former US officials cited in the report, the miniature "StingRay" devices were meant to spy on US President Donald Trump and his closest aides.

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Notably, in contrast to other espionage discoveries, there were no consequences for this case, as the Trump administration did not reprove the Israeli government, according to one of the former officials.

The StingRays, technically referred to as IMSI-catchers, work by acting as regular cell towers that are then able to obtain the locations and identities of mobile devices in addition to data and call content.

.@politico journalist @dlippman says senior White House officials told him the FBI determined it most likely #Israel who planted Stingray spy devices near the White House: pic.twitter.com/ZfAzTXJiuu

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) September 12, 2019

According to Politico, the incumbent president has been notoriously careless in security protocols, for example by failing to use a secured cellphone. Politico also cited his dismissive response to a report in The New York Times in October 2018 of Chinese spies tapping his calls, which he said was "so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it."

At that point, officials at the Homeland Security Department had already uncovered evidence of the StingRays around the nation's capital while conducting tests, though they were unable to identify the specific source.

The findings were apparently relayed to relevant federal agencies, Politico reported, based on a letter by a top DHS official, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Christopher Krebs, to Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in May 2018.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS.

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Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said in remarks broadcast on state TV that the convicted woman is Aras Amiri, who had worked for the British Council while allegedly spying on cultural activities in Iran. The British Council is a non-political organization that works in education, arts and culture.

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Amiri has been jailed for the past year while her case was under investigation. She was sentenced to 10 years.

Esmaili identified one of the men as Anoush Ashoori, a dual British-Iranian national. He was sentenced to 12 years for ties to Mossad, as was Ali Johari. Ashoori was detained in Tehran in August 2017.

Johari allegedly passed on information about construction projects by a Revolutionary Guard-affiliated construction conglomerate, Khatam al-Anbia. Esmaili said that Johari traveled to Israel and was in touch with Mossad in various countries including India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a Tuesday statement that it has been supportive of Ashoori's family since his detention and the British Embassy in Tehran continues to request consular access.

"The treatment of all dual nationals detained in Iran is a priority and we raise their cases at the most senior levels. We urge Iran to let them be reunited with their families," the statement said.

The sentencing comes at a time of increased tensions between the US and Iran over its unraveling nuclear deal with world powers, including Britain. Though the British Embassy in Tehran has reopened, the British Council has been closed since 2009.

Another British-Iranian woman held in Tehran, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly planning the "soft toppling" of Iran's government while traveling with her young daughter.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the charity arm of Thomson Reuters, was arrested in April 2016. Her sentence has been widely criticized.

Iran does not recognize dual nationalities.

Hardliners in Iran view the country as fighting a cultural "soft war" against Westernization, which they believe is attempting to transform the country's Islamic beliefs.

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Investigators say a Jordanian 32-year-old man, Taer Shaafut, whose family is from Hebron, was recruited to carry out undercover activities and was sent to Israel on Iranian orders.

He was told to engage in business activity in Israel, with the goal of setting up an Iranian network that could be used for malicious activity against the Jewish state.

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The Iranian operatives who were in charge of the operation hoped that his activity in Israel would help them gain access to communities in Judea and Samaria and allow them to recruit spies.

Shaafut engaged in business activity and began recruiting people to help him collect information on Israel. He also proposed to build a special factory in Jordan to make his activity seem more legitimate and was supposed to go to Iran to coordinate further activity.

He was recently arrested and put on trial in a military court.

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Ahmadreza Djalali, a medical doctor and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute in the Swedish capital, was arrested in Iran in April 2016 and later convicted of espionage, having been accused of providing information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists.

Iran's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in December and Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said Djalali had confessed to meeting agents of the Mossad intelligence agency to deliver information on Iran's nuclear and defense plans and personnel.

A Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said, "We know that he has been granted citizenship by the Migration Board. We continue in our consular work for Djalali and request consular access to our citizen."

She said, "We have been in regular contact with Iranian representatives, requested access to Djalali and presented Sweden's view of the death penalty, which we condemn in all its forms. Our demand is that the death penalty is not carried out."

Djalali had been on a business trip to Iran when he was arrested and sent to Evin Prison. According to Amnesty International, he was held in solitary confinement for three months and tortured. The humanitarian aid group said Djalali wrote a letter from inside prison in August stating he was being held for refusing to spy for Iran.

Seventy-five Nobel prize laureates petitioned Iranian authorities last year to release Djalali so he could "continue his scholarly work for the benefit of mankind."

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