An Israeli court has convicted a resident of the Golan Heights of espionage on behalf of Iran, finding that he spent years relaying sensitive information about Israeli military activity in the North to a contact he suspected was linked to Iranian and Syrian intelligence.

The court found Tahrir Safdi, a resident of Mas’ada, guilty of passing information about IDF tank movements and missile impact sites through a Syria-based contact. The ruling was issued Wednesday by Judge Moran Margalit and unsealed Thursday, with a sentencing hearing set for April 15.

According to the amended indictment, Safdi’s contact was Hossam Zidan, a Syrian national described as a correspondent for Iranian outlet Al-Alam, whom Safdi himself acknowledged suspecting of operating on behalf of the “Palestine branch” of Iran’s Quds Force. The court found that the relationship originated through Safdi’s father’s longstanding ties to Zidan and that even after Safdi grew suspicious of Zidan’s true employers, he kept transmitting information.

The court’s factual findings span several years. In 2019, Safdi and his father photographed missile impact sites in the Golan and a military tank. The activity continued into the war period, when Safdi was asked to report on tank movements and missile strikes. In one episode, he transmitted information about 21 tanks passing through his village in September 2024 and another five near Tiberias in October. He also relayed reports on missile fire in the Tiberias area and sent images of military forces.

Safdi denied the charges and challenged the admissibility of key statements made during Shin Bet and Israel Police questioning, arguing they had been extracted through psychological pressure and improper interrogation tactics. Judge Margalit rejected that claim, finding that his admissions were given “freely and voluntarily” and that the evidence showed “to the required degree and beyond” that he acted with full awareness that his conduct could harm state security. The court also dismissed the defense’s argument that the activity was journalistic in nature, ruling that had that truly been the case, there would have been no reason to conceal the relationship with Zidan.

The conviction arrives against a backdrop of an accelerating wave of Iran-linked espionage. Just this week alone, prosecutors filed a separate indictment in Tel Aviv against a 14-year-old accused of carrying out paid surveillance and sabotage assignments for hostile actors suspected of being Iranian. On Tuesday, two brothers from the Jerusalem area were indicted on allegations of passing information and content to an Iranian agent in exchange for cryptocurrency. Last week, a reservist who had served in Iron Dome was charged with leaking sensitive military information to an Iranian handler.

Israeli authorities have repeatedly warned that enemy agents are exploiting social media and encrypted messaging platforms to recruit Israelis for intelligence, espionage, and even terrorist assignments. Over the past two years, dozens of Israelis have faced charges in Iran-linked cases.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)