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Israeli officials have discovered an object, suspected of being a listening device, inside a Passover gift from the Chinese embassy, reports said Tuesday.
The object was found inside a thermal mug sent to the office of Science, Technology and Space Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen, and discovered during a mirroring security check. The gift, however, did not reach her.
The country's internal security service, the Shin Bet, is investigating the incident. All other cups given by the embassy were collected for further inspection and will not be returned to the embassy.
The Shin Bet also instructed the security officers of the ministries to report any gift from the Chinese embassy or any other foreign embassy due to the fear of espionage devices being inside them.
Similar cups also arrived at the officer of the Transportation Ministry and the Health Ministry. Ministers' assistants in other offices received a message from the Chinese embassy that more gifts will arrive in the coming days. However, in some of the gifts that have been sent so far, no suspicious findings were discovered.
China and Israel generally maintain good ties, and the two countries celebrated 30 years of diplomacy in January with the fifth meeting of the China-Israel Joint Committee on Innovation Cooperation.
China surpassed the United States as Israel’s largest source of imports in 2021, according to data released Thursday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.