Hundreds of Israelis received threatening phone calls over the weekend, with a recorded Hebrew message attempting to recruit them to spy on behalf of Iranian intelligence, the Israel Police said on Saturday.
“In recent hours, hundreds of citizens have reported receiving phone calls from unknown numbers in which a caller offered to recruit them to an Iranian organization,” police confirmed via a statement on Facebook.
“The calls are intended to cause alarm during wartime and are attempts by Iranian intelligence to recruit Israeli citizens at home and abroad to advance espionage and terrorist activity in Israel,” it continued.
Police urged the public to report suspicious calls to its 100 hotline, remain vigilant and avoid any cooperation with enemy operatives.
“Iranian intelligence is looking for official agents—competitive salary, comprehensive security. Find us on Telegram and the internet,” said one of the recordings, as quoted by the Hebrew-language Ynet outlet.
The Israel National Cyber Directorate confirmed that it was probing the reports from Israelis who received threatening calls and urged Israeli citizens not to answer numbers that begin with 03-6817 and 03-3067.
The directorate stressed that while simply answering a call cannot damage a mobile device, citizens should immediately hang up without pressing any numbers if they answer such calls inadvertently.
People who received the calls should also immediately block the number and report it to law enforcement authorities, it advised.
Since the outbreak of the war triggered by the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli security forces have uncovered more than three dozen cases in which Tehran attempted to recruit Israeli nationals.
On Thursday, the Israel Police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced the arrest of Yaakov Perl, 49, a dual Israeli-U.S. citizen.
According to the joint statement, Perl, who had been living in Morocco, allegedly carried out missions to gather information on politicians and public figures, including Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. (res.) Herzi Halevi.
Perl is accused of communicating with Iranian intelligence operatives, attempting to recruit others and entering Israel in July after renewing his passport under Iranian direction. He reportedly sent videos and photos of various Israeli locations and received payments in cryptocurrency.
