‘Israeli’ teens charged with spying for Iran after Telegram recruitment
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Two ‘Israeli’ teenagers from Kiryat Motzkin, Haifa, have been charged with carrying out surveillance, vandalism and recruitment tasks for an Iranian intelligence agent after being approached online.
The Haifa District Attorney’s Office filed the indictment on Sunday in the Haifa District Juvenile Court against the minors, aged 14 and 16.
Prosecutors say one of them made initial contact in June 2026 through a Telegram group focused on job postings with a man using the alias “Daniel.”
The agent offered payment for assignments, and the first teen later involved his friend.
Both continued the activity even after suspecting and then confirming the handler’s ties to Iran.
According to the indictment, the pair gathered footage of shopping malls in the Herzliya and Tel Aviv areas and passed on details about entrances and the number of security guards at one site.
They also spray-painted slogans in the Kiryat Motzkin area and attempted to expand the network by forming a Telegram group to recruit other minors willing to take on “high-risk” missions.
One of the teens allegedly posed as a soldier in the ‘Israeli’ military’s elite Unit 8200 intelligence unit in an effort to obtain additional assignments.
They received payments totaling several hundred shekels, partly in cryptocurrency.
Police said the investigation began when one of the suspects was arrested upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport.
The main defendant faces counts including contact with a foreign agent, providing information for the benefit of the enemy, and property damage; the second is charged with assisting contact with a foreign agent and vandalism.
The court has barred publication of identifying details.
The ‘Israeli’ police stated that the case involves several minors from the Haifa and Krayot area who maintained ongoing contact with a foreign agent working on behalf of Iranian intelligence.
The teenagers were offered money in exchange for executing tasks for an individual who later admitted his connection to Iran.
This indictment forms part of a broader pattern in which Iranian operatives have used Telegram and other platforms to recruit ‘Israelis’, often starting with seemingly minor paid jobs that escalate into full-fledged intelligence-gathering tasks. .
