Spy For Iran on Israeli Government Official;

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

          Yoav Gallant, Yoav Gallant (Hebrew: יוֹאָב גָּלַנְט‎; born 8 November 1958), age 68,  is an Israeli politician and former military officer who served as minister of defense between 2022 and 2024. Gallant was an officer in the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces, serving in the Israeli Navy. In January 2015, he entered politics, joining the new Kulanu party.

Israeli citizen Fares Abu al-Hija, 32, a resident of Kaukab in northern Israel, was sentenced to 4½ years in prison after he was convicted of spying for Iran, including gathering intelligence on former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and traveling to Gallant’s home in Moshav Amikam, where he was arrested.   Fares Abu al-Hija,is a 32-year-old Israeli man who was sentenced to 55 months in prison in September 2026 for gathering intelligence on behalf of Iranian operatives. Moshav Amikam is a picturesque, Moshav (cooperative agricultural village) located in the rolling hills of northern Israel, near Zikhron Ya'akov. It serves as the headquarters for the Alona Regional Council within the Haifa District.  

 He was  from the small Arab town of Kaukab in northern Israel, was convicted of contact with a foreign agent as part of a plea deal and sentenced to 55 months.

              Moshav Amikam's land

He was accused of carrying out several tasks for Iran between October 2025 and January 2026, ending with the mission outside Gallant’s home in northern Israel’s Amikam, where Abu al-Hija was arrested.

Contact: Between October 2025 and January 2026, he communicated via Telegram with a handler who called himself "Martin".

Tasks: He carried out several assignments despite suspecting the handler worked for foreign intelligence. These tasks included hiding activated cellphones in Haifa and Kiryat Haim, recording a cafe in Tel Aviv, and photographing streets near the home of former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Amikam.

Payment: He received a total of about $3,600 in cryptocurrency through the Binance app. He was arrested outside Yoav Gallant's residence in late January 2026.

Why would he be spying on Yoav Gallant?  Goldberg/Flash90)

Other tasks included recording a Tel Aviv cafe and hiding cellphones, money and a password for a cryptocurrency wallet. The tasks earned Abu al-Hija a total of some $3,600, prosecutors said.

Abu al-Hija received the tasks and the payments from an account he corresponded with on Telegram. He suspected the contact was an Iranian agent, but neglected to investigate the matter, the court said.

Kaukab (properly known as Kaukab Abu al-Hija) is located in the Lower Galilee region of northern Israel.  It is an Arab Muslim village and local council situated within Israel's Northern District, specifically positioned along Road 784 between the cities of Shefa-'Amr and Karmiel. 

Karmiel is a planned modern city located in the Beit HaKerem Valley in northern Israelsl.  It was home to Americans that I knew as it wasn't far from Safed.  The government founded the town in 1964 as a planned development project.  The name means "God's vineyards" in Hebrew.  The population is around 48,000 to 50,000 people.  Many immigrants from the former Soviet Union and other regions live here. 

Resource:

israelAM

Times of Israel