Prosecutors filed charges Sunday against a man who allegedly passed Iranian agents intelligence on army and air force bases, as well as missile impact sites during the war with the Islamic Republic, using information gleaned from his wife while she was on reserve duty.
The defendant, 27-year-old Shimon Azarzar, had maintained online contact for around a year with an Iranian agent under the alias “TYROD,” who later put him in touch with another agent by the name of “ROB,” prosecutors wrote.
He is the latest of dozens to be indicted on espionage charges, as law enforcement attempts to crack down on the phenomenon of Israelis spying for Iran.
The contact began in October 2024 and was severed on October 15, 2025, when he and his wife were arrested in their home in Kiryat Yam on suspicion of security offenses.
He received thousands of shekels as compensation for his espionage activities, according to the indictment.
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Azarzar’s wife worked as a communication systems technician at the Ramat David Airbase during her reserve duty, and was seemingly unaware of her husband’s double life as an Iranian spy. She was not charged alongside her husband.
The couple shared content on their phone via the cloud, which meant photos they took would automatically be visible to one another.
During open war with Iran, the defendant allegedly sent one of his handlers a partially blurred picture of the operations room at his wife’s base, with screens displaying the air force’s systems.
Prosecutors said the image “could have assisted the enemy in improving the accuracy of strikes on targets, assessing damage from attacks and enhancing kinetic strike capabilities at the Ramat David base.”
He also was said to have volunteered information to his handlers about missile impact sites, amid Iranian attacks on Israel during the June war.
Prosecutors wrote that at one point during the war, Azarzar even texted his handler while taking cover during an Iranian attack, saying: “I am currently running from your missiles, and I can give you information about an impact in a special location.”
Israeli security and rescue forces at the scene where a ballistic missile fired from Iran hit and caused damage in Haifa, June 20, 2025. (Flash90)
He is not the first to be suspected of sharing missile impact locations with Iran. Just last week, another man was arrested on suspicion of photographing a high-rise that was damaged in a strike in Ramat Gan.
Azarzar was employed by a renovation contractor that did work for the IDF, the Israel Police and the Israeli defense firm Rafael, between November 2024 and March 2025.
During one job he took as part of the company, Azarzar worked at a high-rise building in Glilot that overlooked “adjacent military facilities” — presumably the Glilot military base, where the army’s 8200 intelligence unit is headquartered.
After almost a year of transferring intelligence to his handler, Azarzar was asked to recruit other spies into the online network. In September, TYROD offered the defendant NIS 40,000 if he could connect him with anyone in the Mossad, Shin Bet, police or government.
Azarzar sent his handler the full details of a policeman he knew in the force, without informing the officer he had done so. When asked again if he knew any other officials, the defendant told TYROD he did not, and that he was trying to flee the authorities following an arrest warrant put out for him.
The agent several times volunteered to spirit Azarzar to Iran via Turkey, and promised him and his wife a large house, a car and high-paying jobs in the Islamic Republic, but Azarzar told him he was subject to a travel ban.
At the end of September, the agent transferred Azarzar NIS 333 ($103) in cryptocurrency, calling it a “gift for the Rosh Hashanah holiday.”
Prosecutors said that in addition to the alleged espionage offenses, the defendant routinely deleted his correspondence with both agents on his phone, in an attempt to dispose of evidence.
He was indicted Sunday morning in the Haifa District Court on charges of sharing intelligence with the enemy, maintaining contact with a foreign agent, and destroying evidence.
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