Israel has long used the same playbook to recruit informants from enemy societies. Iran is now using it to recruit spies in Israel by exploiting new cracks in Israeli society.
On Sunday, Israeli prosecutors charged two Israeli citizens with espionage for Iran — 19-year-old Sagi Haik, who had been in contact with an Iranian handler for months through Telegram, and 21-year-old Asaf Shitrit, who was allegedly recruited by Haik to carry out tasks under Iranian direction. The months-long contact included plans for the two men to travel to an Arab country for “training,” while the younger suspect allegedly told Israeli authorities that he had given “fake intelligence” to his Iranian handler in the form of a forged document detailing plans for a U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. Prosecutors warned that if the allegedly fake document had reached Tehran, it could have triggered a preemptive Iranian attack.
It was the latest entry in what Israeli security commentators now describe as a “magefa” — an epidemic. Since October 2023, over 50 indictments have been filed against Israeli citizens for spying on behalf of Iran. In 2025, Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, reported a 400% increase in Iranian recruitment attempts compared to the previous year, which itself had seen an unprecedented surge.
In 2026, several prominent cases dominated the headlines. In March, an Iron Dome reservist was arrested on suspicion of passing along details on how the missile interceptor system worked in exchange for $1000. During the past month alone, a rash of spy rings was uncovered: two suspected moles in the Israeli Air Force, a thwarted plot to assassinate former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet, four active-duty soldiers accused of spying for Iran, and now, the two citizens with the forged documents.
The suspects have ranged in age from 13 to 73. They include ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, Azerbaijani immigrants, a Bnei Brak resident who stalked a nuclear scientist, reservists who filmed Iron Dome batteries, and soldiers arrested during an ongoing “existential” war with Iran. (more...)
Israelis are being recruited as spies for Iran in what security experts call an espionage ‘epidemic’
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