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A woman from Nazareth was charged with spying for Iran and filming the Haifa oil refinery and other sensitive sites in Israel on Wednesday.
The police and Shin Bet, Israel’s primary internal security service, announced in a statement that the woman, who was identified as Shomua Abu Abed, was detained in March, during the war with Iran that started February 28, 2026, and had been passing information to a foreign agent since October.
She allegedly carried out “a large number of missions,” including photographing security sites, IDF bases, and the Haifa oil refinery, as well as disseminating information about an unnamed Israeli former security official.
According to Shin Bet, the Nazareth woman “carried out the missions despite suspecting from the early stages of the relationship that she was being deployed by an Iranian entity”.
Abed was charged in the Nazareth District Court, and law enforcement requested she be held in custody until the conclusion of the proceedings against her.
There is a growing number of suspected spies who have been caught spying for Iran in Israel, prompting the country to open up a new wing in Haifa’s Damon prison for those indicted on such espionage charges.
Over 50 suspects have been arrested by the Israeli Police in some 40 cases that have been made public over the past two years. The Times of Israel reported that the police are forming an Iran espionage investigations unit, after a man was accused in a recent case of plotting to harm former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Only one of the suspected spies has been convicted so far.
