Two residents of Israel charged with espionage for spying for Iran

A father and son from the Druze village of Mas'ada in the Golan Heights were charged with espionage for Iran, the police announced Friday. 

Shin Bet and Israel Police arrested Tahrir Safadi, 21, and Bassam Safadi, 43, in November on suspicion the two were recruited by Iranian operatives and spied on Israel during the course of the war.

Tahrir has been indicted for espionage, and an administrative detention order was issued against Bassam Safadi. Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered this week that Bassam Safadi remain in custody and signed the administrative detention order, Walla reported.

The investigation revealed that the Iranian Quds Force employed the two to carry out missions gathering intel on IDF activity in the Golan Heights area.

Bassam Safadi 

Tahrir, a software engineering student, had been gathering intelligence on behalf of his father. His father was previously arrested and interrogated eight years ago on suspicion of incitement to violence and terrorism through posts on his Facebook page, according to Walla. At that time and still in the present, he served as a correspondent for the Iranian network Al-Alam, which reported that his primary focus was covering Israel’s oil drilling activities in the Golan Heights.

Tahrir collected information about IDF operations in the area of the Golan Heights, which he then passed on to another journalist for Iran's Al-Alam news network, Hossam Aa-Salam Tawfiq Zidan. Zidan, a Damascus resident, has been working for the Palestinian branch of the Quds Force, which assists Palestinian organizations in promoting terrorism against Israeli citizens.

Zidan directed the father and son to carry out missions to gather intelligence, including photographing IDF troops, tank movements, equipment, and weapons. 

Tahrir also conducted his espionage work during wartime and gathered information on IDF operations and the locations of rocket impacts.