{"id":80059,"date":"2026-04-23T14:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/80059\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T14:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:30:12","slug":"2-idf-aircraft-mechanics-said-set-to-be-charged-with-spying-for-iran-on-ben-gvir-ex-idf-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/80059\/","title":{"rendered":"2 IDF aircraft mechanics said set to be charged with spying for Iran on Ben Gvir, ex-IDF chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two IDF soldiers serving as F-15 aircraft mechanics will be charged in court with spying for Iran during wartime, the Kan public broadcaster reported Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The report was not immediately confirmed by authorities.<\/p>\n<p>The pair, while serving at the Tel Nof airbase in central Israel, were allegedly enlisted by an Iranian agent to gather intelligence on former IDF chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.<\/p>\n<p>They face charges of assisting the enemy during wartime. State prosecutors are considering upping the severity of charges for one of the suspects by adding treason to his indictment, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>The two servicemen are also suspected of passing their Iranian handler a diagram detailing the engine of an Israeli aircraft, as well as photographs containing the face of an IDF aviation instructor.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Eight other soldiers serving at the base were reportedly suspected of having known about the alleged espionage without reporting it.<\/p>\n<p>After the incident was uncovered, the commander at Tel Nof convened his soldiers for a discussion on information security, in which he divulged that he had been summoned by the Shin Bet over the affair, according to the Kan report.<\/p>\n<p>The alleged spying joins a long string of similar scandals in which ordinary Israelis have been arrested on suspicion of carrying out tasks, usually intelligence gathering and vandalism, at the behest of Iran-linked agents they met online.<\/p>\n<p>Iranian agents usually start out their recruits with relatively mundane tasks such as vandalism or the filming of public locations, which then escalate into more severe, sometimes even violent offenses.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, two young men from central Israel were<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/two-young-men-set-to-be-charged-with-spying-for-iran\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> indicted on espionage charges<\/a> after allegedly maintaining contact with an Iranian intelligence agent. One of them had already bought a ticket to Dubai where he planned to meet his handler, prosecutors claimed.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tYou appreciate our wartime journalism\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DH-new-headshot-circular-200x200.png\" class=\"attachment-square size-square wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"crm-article-popup__counter-wrap\" style=\"display:none\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWe\u2019re really pleased that you\u2019ve read  X Times of Israel articles in the past month.&#13;\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>You clearly find our careful reporting of the Iran war valuable, at a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.<\/p>\n<p>Your support is essential to continue our work. 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Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two IDF soldiers serving as F-15 aircraft mechanics will be charged in court with spying for Iran during&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[27587,28585,37,28949,8750,28950,28948],"class_list":["post-80059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2026-us-israel-war-with-iran","tag-herzi-halevi","tag-israel","tag-israelis-spying-for-iran","tag-itamar-ben-gvir","tag-state-attorneys-office","tag-tel-nof"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116454504845772402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}