Israel explained that its intelligence services obtained identical information from a number of Western intelligence services, and that it cooperated with these African countries to thwart the plot.
The Israeli Channel 12 News reported that 5 suspects were arrested by the general intelligence services in Ghana, Senegal and Tanzania, adding that they sought to target Israelis who wanted to visit these three countries at the same time, to cause panic and confusion in Israel.
The information provided by the Israeli sources said that the arrested network had received training from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, especially inside Lebanon, in addition to receiving unspecified materials and resources.
The trained group was recruited into religious schools in these countries, and had long been seeking “Jewish and Israeli targets” to simultaneously target within Africa.
So far, no confirmations have been received from the three African countries on this information, but the Mossad does not usually leak such data, unless it has evidence, because it may affect its image deeply if the opposite happened and it was denied.
The information did not mention the nationalities of the five detainees, even if they were all Africans, but it confirmed that they were unable to take any action during their arrest, adding that the intelligence services in these countries are conducting an investigation with the network, in an effort to reach the entity that established it, and the mechanism for reaching this stage.
Commenting on the latest incident, political science professor Basil Hanna told Sky News Arabia, “This year alone, this is the second time that Africa has become an arena for Iran’s attempts to target Israeli citizens. Last February, the New York Times revealed The US government said that Iranians planned to launch attacks inside Ethiopia.
Immediately after the spread of this news, many questions were raised about the role played by the Lebanese Hezbollah in such acts. Providing such cooperation and participation with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and exploiting the presence of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese workers and business networks in African countries, may affect the security and stability of these countries. The Lebanese communities in those countries, which were trusted and respected by the state institutions and the local communities in those countries, especially in light of these difficult economic and political conditions in Lebanon.
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