New details emerged Sunday night in the espionage case involving two minors from Kiryat Motzkin—ages 14 and 16—accused of working with Iranian intelligence. According to the serious indictment filed by the Haifa District Attorney’s Office, both knew from the start they were dealing with a hostile Iranian handler, but chose to work for him anyway for $1,500.
1+The case broke after unusual financial activity triggered an investigation that ended with the dramatic arrest of the 14-year-old at Ben Gurion Airport the moment he landed in Israel. The minors’ contact with the Iranian agent, who called himself “Daniel,” began when they searched for summer vacation work on social media and joined a dedicated WhatsApp group. As part of their activity, they collected intelligence on targets in Herzliya, and one went further—posing as a soldier in Unit 8200 in an attempt to recruit additional teens into the spy network.
In his interrogation, one of the teens described how it unfolded: “At first I looked for work on Telegram in youth groups and also adult ones. I sent messages and wrote that I’m looking for work for vacation. At first he asked me to distribute flyers; he sent me a picture on Telegram. Then the agent wanted us to go photograph a mall or something like that. He told me to go photograph the shopping center closest to you; I photographed it, and that’s it.”
1+During the interrogation, investigators confronted the teen with the fact that he carried out missions for an Iranian agent with full knowledge of his identity. The teen confirmed it and said: “Yes, but not missions on a scale that could endanger or harm the state; I just wanted money.” The teen also confirmed in his interrogation that he received payment for the missions he carried out for the Iranians. Now, with the filing of the indictment, the depth of Iranian exploitation of Israeli teens for intelligence gathering and hostile activity inside the country has been exposed.