The Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday convicted four Muslim residents of the Beit Tzafafa neighborhood—Mamdouh Hadar, Omri Abu Hamida, Mahmoud Hadar, and Mohammed Taha—on serious security offenses committed in service of Iranian intelligence. The four admitted to the acts as part of a plea deal that exposed a chain of missions designed to harm Israel’s security, ranging from gathering intelligence for the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and his family to acquiring weapons and staging fake attacks for propaganda purposes.
According to the indictment, an Iranian operative contacted a central defendant in the case and tasked him—in exchange for payment—with establishing a terror cell and carrying out a series of security missions. The main target was assassinating a nuclear scientist along with his family members, alongside acquiring weapons and grenades and producing fake documentation of attacks on security and Israeli property.
1+Two of those involved, Mamdouh Hadar and Omri Abu Hamida, were convicted of failing to prevent an act of terror. The two joined a trip to the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot after being explicitly told the mission was on behalf of an Iranian operative. When they arrived, they were prevented from entering the institute, but cell members videotaped the entrance and sent the footage to the Iranian handler. When Abu Hamida asked about the purpose of the filming, he was told that a person the Iranians wanted to assassinate lived there. Despite the alarming information, the two didn’t lift a finger to report or prevent the act.
The two other defendants, Mahmoud Hadar and Mohammed Taha, were convicted of aiding contact with a foreign agent. Mahmoud Hadar helped spray-paint and document graffiti in Jerusalem, drove another defendant to pick up two grenades, and helped obtain a fake police identification plate—intended to create a staged video showing an attack on a police vehicle.
Mohammed Taha initiated and proposed throwing a stun grenade at an abandoned house in Kafr Qatanna to create documentation that would simulate an attack on a Jewish citizen’s home. Taha arrived at the scene with the grenade, instructed his associates to throw it, filmed the explosion, and passed the footage to the defendant in direct contact with the Iranians. In addition, he concealed the mobile phone used for communication with the Iranian handler to prevent security authorities from locating it.
1+This case joins a series of incidents recently exposed that point to a systematic effort by Iranian intelligence to recruit Israeli citizens and residents through social networks and tempting financial offers. The operating method is often based on “test stages,” in which recruits are first required to perform easy missions of photography, graffiti, and information gathering, and are then promoted to missions involving acquiring weapons, assassination attempts on officials and scientists, and psychological operations designed to sow fear among the public.