The Israeli website Israel Hayom reported “Iranian attempts to kidnap high-ranking Israeli figures, including former Defense Minister and former Chief of General Staff Moshe Bogi Ya’alon.” He pointed out that “Ya’alon was suspicious of this group when they tried to get close to him, so he reported it to the Israeli General Security Service, Shin Bet, and thus exposed their case.”

In this context, the official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said yesterday Thursday that “Iranian intelligence has tried to lure scientists and senior officials abroad to kidnap them”, noting that the General Security Service “has been monitoring the activities of Iranian intelligence in recent months in order to encourage Israeli scientists and senior security officials are prohibited from traveling abroad to kidnap or harm them.

She explained that “Iranian intelligence agents posed as lecturers, journalists and businessmen, and contacted the Israelis by e-mail.” For its part, Israel Hayom confirmed that “Israeli citizens have been contacted by email using a very similar postal address or changing the letter or signature to the original address known to the other side in order to establish contact.”

And the newspaper stressed that “after initial contact with an Israeli, he is asked to switch to a WhatsApp conversation with a new unfamiliar phone number,” adding: “Israeli citizens who received these suspicious requests refrained from responding to them, and even alerted the security services.”