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Israeli authorities announced this Thursday the arrest of a couple living in the city of Lod for allegedly conducted espionage work for Iranin a new operation against suspected Iranian spy networks in the country amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

In a statement, the Israeli police indicated that the operation made it possible to “identify the infrastructure of Iranian intelligence services that were recruiting citizens in Israel.” The arrested persons were identified as Rafael and Lala Guliyev.

Thus, he emphasized that both “were recruited” by a man of Azerbaijani origin which acted on behalf of Tehran as part of an “Iranian network recruiting Israelis migrating from countries in the Caucasus region,” before its assigned tasks included “finding a killer” who was acting on Iran’s orders.

The police emphasized that the couple, about 32 years old, “They were on intelligence-gathering missions about security locations and national infrastructure,” and “surveilling a scientist who works at a security think tank with the intent of causing him physical harm.”

Over the past few months, Israel has stated that eliminated several Iranian conspiracies, including recruiting Israelis to carry out the assassinations of several high-ranking officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

In fact, the authorities announced on October 22 arrest of seven East Jerusalem residents over suspicions that they were part of an Iran-backed network that was planning terrorist attacks in the country, including the assassination of a nuclear scientist and the mayor of a city in central Israel.

The day before, the prosecutor’s office reported that seven Israelis were detained on suspicion of spying in favor of Iran, including photographing and collecting information about military bases and headquarters, the location of batteries of the Iron Dome air defense system.

(according to information from Europe Press)