Israeli police said Tuesday they had arrested seven residents of east Jerusalem on suspicion of planning to assassinate an Israeli scientist and a city mayor on orders from Iran.
“The Shin Bet and the Central Investigations Unit of the Jerusalem district police arrested seven residents from the Beit Safafa neighbourhood in Jerusalem,” the police said in a statement.
“These individuals, under Iranian direction, planned to assassinate a senior Israeli scientist and a mayor of a major Israeli city.”
Police alleged that the group was also tasked with bombing a police car and throwing a grenade at a house with a promised payment of 200,000 Israeli shekels ($53,000).
The suspects were apprehended near the scientist’s residence after photographing it ahead of the planned assassination, it said.
“This investigation underscores Iran’s efforts to recruit Israeli citizens for terrorism,” the statement quoted an Israeli security official as saying.
News of the arrests comes a day after Israeli police said they had dismantled a seven-member group of Israeli citizens who were spying on military bases and energy infrastructure for Iranian intelligence.
The seven Israelis were from the city of Haifa and northern areas of the country.
Israeli police, just weeks before, had announced the arrest of an Israeli on suspicion of having been recruited by Iran to plot the assassination of top officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel is currently engaged in a war on Lebanon, Gaza and Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Israel has also vowed to retaliate over a missile attack by Tehran on 1 October.
