The two Israelis were recruited by a former resident of their town now living in Lebanon, the Shin Bet says.
By David Isaac, World Israel News
Iran proxy Hezbollah, the terror group based in Lebanon, has been attempting to recruit Israeli citizens to spy on the Jewish State, Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, revealed on Tuesday.
Two Israeli citizens of Arab extraction living in the Israeli-Arab town of Majd al-Krum in the Galilee were recruited by a former resident of their town now living in Lebanon, the Shin Bet says.
That former resident, Beirut Mahmoud, works as a writer for the Lebanese-based newspaper Al-Akhbar, which supports Hezbollah.
The two Arab-Israelis had been in touch with Mahmoud and met with her in December 2019 in Turkey. The Shin Bet interrogated the two women who confirmed the contacts.
Beirut moved to Lebanon, where she married her husband Balal Bizari, after she was interrogated herself by Israeli security officials in 2013 over her suspected ties to Hezbollah. It was discovered that she had met with Hezbollah members at a 2008 conference in Morocco and at another conference in Tunis in 2012.
The Shin Bet reports it has gained a better understanding of how Hezbollah works to recruit spies within Israel as a result of its investigation.
The internal security service released the two female would-be spies to their homes under restricted conditions. It also informed Beirut and Balal that it was aware of their attempts to recruit spies for Hezbollah and warned them to cease attempting to turn Israeli citizens into Hezbollah agents.
The Shin Bet said, “The General Security Service will continue to work resolutely to monitor and thwart any Hezbollah terror or espionage activities, as well as highlight the utmost seriousness with which it takes the exploitation of Israeli citizenship in aid of terrorist and espionage activities.”