Since the start of the war, Shin Bet revealed eight attempts by Iran and Hezbollah to enlist operatives in Israel that would carry out attacks.
On Thursday, an Israeli businessman was indicted on charges that he had been tapped by Iranian intelligence operatives to assassinate senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and to carry out missions inside the country.
Iranian weapons shipment destined for the West Bank was thwarted by security forces
(צילום: דובר צה"ל )
Security officials also say there is direct contact between Israeli crime gangs and terrorists, which Iran has used to entice people with promises of financial rewards and a supply of weapons.
Hezbollah's unit 133 is tasked with conscripting operatives in Israel. It replaced unit 1800, whose notorious commander, Khalil Kharev, successfully enlisted Palestinians to construct a terror infrastructure and carry out attacks. Unit 133 had taken over that mission and was given a wider birth to operate not only in Israel but around the world, mostly in Europe as well as in Egypt and Jordan.
According to Arab reports, under the current commander of unit 133 operatives is working with Lebanese drug smugglers to bring explosives into Israel and the West Bank with the help of crime gangs in South Lebanon.
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Iranian weapons captured after an attempt to smuggle the across the border with Jordan
(Photo: Shin Bet)
Conscripts undergo military and security training, learn how to raise funds, prepare cover stories and conduct surveillance. They often meet handlers from the unit in Syria and Lebanon but also in Europe in other parts of the world.
The security officials in Israel believe Hezbollah's unit 133 was behind the plot to assassinate former defense minister Moshe Ya'alon last year using an explosive device planted on his daily jogging route in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park and the explosive device that severely wounded one man at the Megiddo intersection in the north in March 2023.
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An explosive device used in a plot to assassinate former defense minister Moshe Ya'alon
(Photo: Police)
The Alma Research and Education Center which specializes in security challenges on Israel's northern border said unit 133's mission is to bolster terror infrastructure inside Israel by among other means, using smuggling routes to insert weapons for its operators with the collaboration of Lebanese crime families. Researchers believe Kharev is still heavily involved in the unit's work and uses his connections to the local criminals, to the unit's ends. He is also thought to be at the head of Hezbollah's efforts to train Shiite militias in Iraq and Yemen.