Iranian assassination foiled: 2 Israelis arrested after Iran recruits them to kill Israeli leader

Another Iranian plot to use Israeli citizens to carry out assassinations of Israeli leaders was recently thwarted, the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency and Israel Police announced on Monday

Following the investigation, two Israeli citizens who had been in contact with Iranian intelligence services were arrested.

One of the arrested, 30-year-old Vladislav Victorson from Ramat Gan, is accused of recruiting two other Israelis, among them his partner, Anna Bernstein (18), to assist him in carrying out several tasks.

According to the investigation, he was contacted over the Internet, in Hebrew, by an agent called “Mari Hossi.”

Despite being aware of the agent’s Iranian identity, Victorson agreed to carry out several tasks, including spraying graffiti, hanging banners, burying money and even burning vehicles in exchange for money.

The requests escalated when Vladislav was later asked to sabotage communication infrastructure and ATMs, as well as to ignite forest fires in Israel.

Victorson was paid over $5,000 for carrying out some of the tasks, according to the report.

By the end, Victorson had agreed to obtain weapons, including a sniper rifle, pistols and grenades, to throw a grenade at a house, and even to assassinate an unidentified person.

The police statement warned that the Islamic Republic’s intelligence agencies are increasingly trying to use online social media platforms to recruit random Israelis to carry out tasks by offering them money.

“Although these tasks may initially be seen as innocent, they have the potential to cause real harm to the security of the state,” the police warned.

“It should be noted that a significant number of Israeli citizens who received suspicious inquiries, did not respond to them and even reported them to the relevant authorities.”

A senior Shin Bet official added, “Many fictitious Iranian profiles were located and monitored on the networks, and information was collected about those behind their activation… This investigation reveals, once again, the efforts of the Iranian intelligence agencies to recruit and exploit Israeli citizens in order to promote espionage and terrorist activity in Israel.”

In recent months, Israeli security forces have uncovered and foiled a number of similar attempts by the Iranian regime’s intelligence agencies to pay Israeli citizens to carry out simple tasks before tempting them to assassinate senior Israeli leaders.

Last month, a 73-year-old Jewish businessman was arrested for his involvement in an Iranian plot to assassinate Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Before that, Shin Bet successfully thwarted a Hezbollah bomb plot intended to kill an unnamed Israeli “former senior official,” reportedly former IDF Chief Aviv Kochavi.

On the same occasion, Shin Bet security forces announced it had foiled a similar attempt to kill former IDF Chief and Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon the year before.