Two Jerusalem men arrested on suspicion of providing information to Hezbollah
Abd al-Salam Qawasameh, Taar Asili accused of being in contact and sending material to Hezbollah operative ‘Dania’ via WhatsApp even after they knew she was member of terror group
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Two Jerusalem residents in their 30s have been indicted for contact with Hezbollah and providing the Iran-backed terror group with information as it battled Israel over the past year.
According to the new indictment, Abd al-Salam Qawasameh and Taar Asili were in contact via a WhatsApp group with a woman using the name “Dania,” who was a Hezbollah operative.
Even after learning that she was a member of Hezbollah, the pair continued to maintain contact with her and share information about Israel, prosecutors said.
Announcement of the case came less than a week after security official revealed that another Jerusalem man had been arrested on suspicion of acting on behalf of Iran, including planning a terror attack.
Qawasameh first became acquainted with Dania in 2014 via a WhatsApp group and developed a “personal relationship” with her, according to the charge sheet. Over the years she asked him for money and he sent some to her.
It was only after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September this year that Dania revealed to Qawasameh that she was an operative in the terror group, the indictment said.
Dania asked him for photos of military bases and other places in Israel that she would then pass on to Hezbollah for review.
He responded that he is familiar with the northern town of Caesarea — where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a private residence — and sent her some old videos of the coast there. In October, a Hezbollah drone hit Netanyahu’s home, causing light damage. The premier and his wife were not there at the time.
The other suspect, Asili, first came in contact with Dania in the latter half of 2023. From that time he sent her news articles about Israel and then about the war, the indictment says.
At some point in the second half of 2024, Asili became aware that Dania was a Hezbollah operative because of a link she sent him. Nonetheless, he continued their communications, the indictment said.
Dania also allegedly asked the pair to contact a senior Hezbollah intelligence officer. Whereas Qawasameh declined, the indictment said Asili purchased a new SIM card to contact the officer, but refused a request by Dania to take photos in the northern border town of Metula, which was bombarded by Hezbollah during the war.
They were both arrested on November 18 and are charged with “contact with a foreign agent” and passing information to the enemy.
Qawasameh was also hit with weapons offenses after he a photo showed him with an assault rifle that belonged to a Palestinian gunman during a visit to the West Bank city of Jenin.
The prosecution has asked the Jerusalem District Court to keep them in custody until the end of the legal proceedings.
War erupted on October 7 when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a massive cross-border attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The next day, Hezbollah began attacking across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon in support of Gaza, forcing the evacuation of 60,000 Israelis from the north. Over the next 14 months, Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets and drones at northern Israel. In September, the fighting escalated into an open war which ended last month with a ceasefire after Israel had decimated Hezbollah’s leadership and destroyed much of its weapons stockpiles.
The war in Gaza is still ongoing.
Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah are all avowed to destroy Israel.
