An Israeli teacher, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel’s Negev, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of carrying out “security tasks” for the Iranians. 

An indictment was filed against her in the Beer Sheba District Court. The suspect, a mother of five children who is currently pregnant, was asked, among other things, to transfer funds to West Bank through an experienced money changer, as well as transferring weapons, and carried out these tasks. Another task she was asked to do, but did not carry out, was to install cameras on the road leading to the Nevatim airbase.

As part of a joint operation by the Israel Police and the Shin Bet, the defendant, Tahani Abu Samhan, 33 years old, was arrested last month on suspicion of committing serious security offenses and maintaining contact with Iranian intelligence agents and carrying out tasks under their direction.

“I made a mistake, but I did not intend to harm the security of the state,” she said during her interrogation. “My whole family serves in the security forces. I am in favor of the state. I wanted to collect money for donations, not for myself. They entrusted me with the money at various locations.”

She was also questioned in her interrogation about the relationship she had with a person from a terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. “I was in contact with a couple from Gaza; they asked me to help with donations for children in Gaza,” she said.

Her interrogation by the Counter-Terrorism Unit of the Southern District and the Shin Bet revealed that over the past year, Abu Samhan had been in contact with Iranian intelligence officials and had carried out various security-related tasks for them, fully aware that she was being operated by Iran. To maintain contact with these individuals, she used a dedicated phone through which she communicated with them and received assignments.

Meanwhile, she was asked to carry out tasks during Operation Rising Lion, the 12-day war with Iran, including gathering intelligence on the Air Force base in Nevatim by photographing the take-offs of fighter jets. Abu Samhan received cash payment for these tasks.

At the conclusion of the investigation, an indictment was filed by Attorney Hila Drimer-Yair from the Southern District Attorney’s Office against the suspect, charging her with contact with a foreign agent and providing information to the enemy. In the request for detention until the end of proceedings, Drimer-Yair noted that Abu Samhan “committed security offenses at a time when the State of Israel is engaged in one of the most difficult wars it has known, on multiple fronts including Iran. The respondent was aware that the party with whom she was in contact was a foreign agent hostile to the State of Israel. The respondent’s actions were halted thanks to the actions of the security forces, which led to her arrest.”

The Shin Bet and the police stated: “This case joins a series of incidents from the recent period, indicating repeated efforts by hostile intelligence elements to recruit Israeli citizens for missions intended to harm the security of the State of Israel and its citizens. The Israel Police, the Israel Security Agency, and all enforcement agencies will continue to act firmly against all those involved in such activities.”

Associates of the defendant said that her family is very embarrassed by the incident, with more than 20 members of the family serving in security authorities and the army.

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