Israel arrests citizen over Iran-backed assassination plot against Netanyahu, others

Israel’s police arrested an Israeli citizen allegedly recruited by Iran to plot the assassinations of top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the police and Shin Bet said Thursday.

“An Israeli citizen was recruited by Iranian intelligence to promote assassinations of Israeli figures. He was smuggled twice into Iran and received payment for carrying out missions,” the statement said.

Among the targets were Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the Shin Bet security service’s chief, Ronen Bar, as well as other top officials, it said.

A court document seen by AFP on Thursday identified the man as Mordechai Maman of Ashkelon and said he was born in 1952, without specifying his birthdate.

The document said he had been in custody since August 29.

The joint statement from the police and Shin Bet said he was “a businessman who lived in Turkey for an extended period” and maintained connections with Turks and Iranians who introduced him by phone to an Iranian businessman called Eddie.

It said the suspect first visited Iran in May 2024 to meet Eddie, after Eddie had “difficulty leaving” Iran.

He also met someone called Hajjah, who was introduced as an Iranian security operative, the statement said.

The suspect was asked during this trip to carry out security missions in Israel, including transferring “money or a gun,” taking pictures of crowded public places and threatening other Israelis recruited by Tehran, the statement said.

In August, the police and Shin Bet investigation found, the suspect was smuggled to Iran in a lorry for another visit.

While there “he met with additional Iranian intelligence agents and was asked by them to carry out terrorist activities for Iran on Israeli soil, including promoting assassination attacks,” the police and Shin Bet statement said.

Some of the proposed assassinations were characterized as revenge for the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, the statement said.

Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of being behind Haniyeh’s death. Israel has not commented on the killing.

The arrest highlights an intelligence war running alongside the escalating conflict on Israel’s border with southern Lebanon.

Last week, Shin Bet uncovered what it said was a plot by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defense official, who was subsequently identified as the former army Chief of Staff and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

The announcement of the arrest came a day after Hezbollah was hit for a second day running by a sophisticated attack that detonated communications equipment remotely.

Blasts in handheld radios killed at least 20 people and wounding more than 450. A day earlier, hundreds of Hezbollah pager devices exploded simultaneously, killing 12 people including two children and injuring thousands.

Israel has not commented directly on those attacks, but multiple security sources have said Israel’s spy agency Mossad was responsible.

The suspect was also asked to perform additional tasks, including recruiting members of Israel’s Mossad spy agency to be double agents, the statement said.

After asking for a $1 million advance, the suspect was given 5,000 euros for taking part in the meetings and told he would be contacted in the future, the statement said.

“This is a very serious case that exemplifies the enormous efforts of Iranian intelligence agents to recruit Israeli citizens to promote terrorist activities in Israel,” a senior Shin Bet official was quoted as saying.