Israeli Citizen Arrested For Iran-Assisted Plot To Assassinate PM Netanyahu & Others

New Delhi: An Israeli citizen was arrested by police on Thursday for allegedly planning to assassinate top government officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The accused was reportedly hired by Iranian intelligence, AFP reported.

“An Israeli citizen was recruited by Iranian intelligence to promote assassinations of top Israeli figures. He was smuggled twice into Iran and received payment for carrying out missions,” said a joint statement from the police and Shin Bet, an Israeli intelligence community.

The statement claimed that those targeted included Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and some senior Israeli government officials.

Police, without identifying his name, said the arrested person was a businessman who lived in Turkey for a long time. He had connections with Turkish and Iranian handlers who introduced him to an Iranian businessman named Edie.

During his trip to Iran to meet Eddie in May 2024, he met an Iranian security operative named Hajjah. He was asked to perform various security missions in Israel, including taking photographs of crowded places and transferring “money or a gun.”

In August, he was smuggled into Iran in a truck. This time, he met additional Iranian intelligence agents, who instructed him to carry out terrorist activities in Israel, including helping with the assassinations.

The businessman’s arrest follows unprecedented explosions involving pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon, resulting in 32 deaths and over 3000 injuries.