By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-05 06:24:43 | Updated at 2024-11-05 10:53:25
4 hours ago
As its war with Iranian proxies drags into a second year, Israel’s top officials are alarmed about a new threat to the home front: their fellow citizens helping Tehran locate targets for missile salvoes and potential assassinations.
Since July, the Shin Bet counter-intelligence service has gone public with nine cases that produced indictments against 23 suspected spies – most of them, unusually, from Israel’s Jewish majority. Around half face charges that could in theory carry the death penalty but usually stop at life behind bars if found guilty.
In a small country used to closing ranks during crises, the sense of trust and security has frayed.
Meanwhile, Iran’s promise of a “crushing” counterstrike after Israeli warplanes bombed its territory on October 26 has raised the fresh spectre of local informants helping it deliver the blow.
“This is unprecedented in scope – both in terms of the number of cells and their variety,” Superintendent Maor Goren, a senior police investigator, told Bloomberg.
The minister for national security, Itamar Ben Gvir, has also sounded the alarm and wants a special prison ward to be set up for spies, his spokesperson said.
