2 Israeli reservists detained on suspicion of ‘spying for Iran’
The Israeli regime’s so-called internal security service, Shin Bet, and police say they have arrested two reservist troops on suspicion of espionage for Iran.
An Israeli police spokesman said in a statement on Monday that the primary suspect, Yuri Eliasfov, served in the Israeli army’s Iron Dome anti-air missile unit and passed along classified material obtained during his military service to Iranians.
Contact between Eliasfov and the Iranian agent started in September 2024, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz claimed.
Months later, Eliasfov purportedly recruited his friend, Georgi Andreyev, and put him in contact with the same Iranian handler.
Andreyev supposedly served in the Israeli military’s Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The pair allegedly spray-painted graffiti and hung pro-Iranian banners in Tel Aviv.
Police accuse the two 21-year-old suspects, both from the northern side of the occupied territories, of security offenses — transferring classified information and aiding Iran during wartime.
Prosecutors are expected to bring an indictment against them within the coming days.
The pair is also accused of sending photos and videos from Caesarea, where the Israeli prime minister has a private residence.
Back on October 14 last year, Shin Bet and the Israeli police said they had arrested two settlers east of Tel Aviv on charges of espionage for Iran.
They claimed in a joint statement that 30-year-old Vladislav Viktorson, a resident of Ramat Gan, his 18-year-old partner Anna Bernstein and another unnamed Ramat Gan resident.
The trio purportedly carried out various acts of sabotage and vandalism, including spraying provocative graffiti and putting up posters, setting fire to cars near Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, and acts of arson in local forests, at the behest of an individual identified as “Mari Hossi”, who gave them instructions in Hebrew.
Later, Viktorson was allegedly asked to sabotage communication networks and ATMs and to set fire to forests. He was even tasked with locating homeless individuals for recruitment and photographing protesters during demonstrations.
Viktorson and Bernstein filmed some of the sabotage they engaged in and were paid $5,000.
The statement said Hossi then asked Viktorson to kill a high-profile Israeli figure, whose identity remains unknown, by throwing a hand grenade into his house.
Viktorson agreed to do so and tried to purchase weapons, including sniper rifles, pistols, and grenades. Viktorson and Bernstein were indicted on security offenses.
