Israel Says It Foiled Iranian Plot to Target, Spy on Senior Israeli Politicians

10 November 2022, Israel, Jerusalem: Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Israeli far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, speaks during a memorial ceremony for late controversial Rabbi Meir Kahane. (dpa)
10 November 2022, Israel, Jerusalem: Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Israeli far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, speaks during a memorial ceremony for late controversial Rabbi Meir Kahane. (dpa)
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Israel Says It Foiled Iranian Plot to Target, Spy on Senior Israeli Politicians

10 November 2022, Israel, Jerusalem: Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Israeli far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, speaks during a memorial ceremony for late controversial Rabbi Meir Kahane. (dpa)
10 November 2022, Israel, Jerusalem: Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Israeli far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, speaks during a memorial ceremony for late controversial Rabbi Meir Kahane. (dpa)

Israel arrested five Palestinians in a plot allegedly hatched in Iran to target and spy on senior Israeli politicians, including Israel's far-right national security minister, the country’s internal security agency said Wednesday.

The Shin Bet security service alleged that an Iranian security official living in neighboring Jordan had recruited three Palestinian men in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and another two Palestinian citizens of Israel to gather intelligence about several high-profile Israeli politicians.

The targets included National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — a firebrand Israeli settler leader who oversees the country's police force in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ultranationalist government — as well as Yehuda Glick, an American-born far-right Israeli activist and former member of parliament.

The plan was foiled by Israeli intelligence officials, the Shin Bet said, without offering evidence.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

Ben-Gvir, who draws inspiration from a racist rabbi, has provoked outrage across the wider Middle East for his particularly hard-line policies against the Palestinians, anti-Arab rhetoric and stunts and frequent public visits to the holiest and most contested site in the Holy Land. The hilltop compound in Jerusalem, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is at the emotional center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Glick is a leader in a campaign that pushes for increased Jewish access and prayer rights at the sacred Jerusalem compound, the holiest site in Judaism home to ancient biblical Temples. Today, the compound houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Since Israel captured the site in 1967, Jews have been allowed to visit but not pray there. Glick survived a 2014 Palestinian assassination attempt.

The Shin Bet did not elaborate on the identity of the Iranian official in Jordan who allegedly orchestrated the plot. He is not in custody and apparently remains at large.

But the Shin Bet accused three Palestinian men in the West Bank — identified as 47-year old Murad Kamamaja, 34-year-old Hassan Mujarimah and 45-year-old Ziad Shanti — of gathering intelligence and smuggling weapons into Israel. The security service also said that it charged two Palestinian citizens of Israel over their involvement in the plot. It did not specify how the men planned to target Ben-Gvir and the other politicians.

Ben-Gvir claimed that the Palestinian suspects had conspired to “assassinate a minister in Israel,” without clarifying whether he meant himself or another minister. He thanked Israeli security forces for uncovering and capturing what he called the “terrorist squad.”

Ben-Gvir, who has pushed for harsher treatment for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, also vowed to double down on his hard-line policies in response to the revelations. “I will continue to act fearlessly and even more vigorously for a fundamental change in the conditions of the terrorists’ imprisonment,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Israel has considered Iran to be its greatest enemy since it became a theocracy during the 1979 revolution. Iran is a main patron of Lebanon's Hezbollah armed group, which Israel considers the most potent military threat on its borders, and also backs Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip.



Hamas Accepts US Proposal on Talks over Israeli Hostages 16 Days after 1st Phase

A person rides a scooter near pictures of hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas, in Jerusalem, July 3, 2024. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
A person rides a scooter near pictures of hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas, in Jerusalem, July 3, 2024. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
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Hamas Accepts US Proposal on Talks over Israeli Hostages 16 Days after 1st Phase

A person rides a scooter near pictures of hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas, in Jerusalem, July 3, 2024. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
A person rides a scooter near pictures of hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas, in Jerusalem, July 3, 2024. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Hamas has accepted a US proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday.
The group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts had said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end the nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

A source in Israel's negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was now a real chance of achieving agreement. That was in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were unacceptable.

The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, since Hamas attacked southern Israeli cities on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to official Israeli figures.

The new proposal ensures that mediators would guarantee a temporary ceasefire, aid delivery and the withdrawal of Israeli troops as long as indirect talks continue to implement the second phase of the agreement, the Hamas source said.

Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza have intensified over the past few days with active shuttle diplomacy among Washington, Israel and Qatar, which is leading mediation efforts from Doha.