The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), IDF and police lifted the curtain Thursday off a case of a Druze soldier from the Galilee handing over classified information to a Golan Heights Druze citizen for Syria, an enemy state.
An indictment charged Corporal Halal Halabi with passing on classified information and assisting the enemy in mid-February.
The IDF said the intelligence “was capable of harming state security on the IDF’s activity on the Israel-Syria border. The accused relayed this information to a citizen from the Druze city of Majdal Shams, despite his role as part of the security detail of the IDF’s activities. The soldier delivered the information on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Israeli citizen who was the middle man for the information also has been indicted on several charges, including espionage and contact with a foreign agent.
Halabi is from the Galilee Druze city of Daliyat al-Karmel, which has produced several of the IDF’s best soldiers.
The Golan Druze city of Majdal Shams, unlike most other Druze cities in Israel, is a hotbed of anti-Israel activity, and most of its residents claim loyalty to Syria.
The citizen was identified as Sidqi al-Maqt, 48, who allegedly handed over to Syrian intelligence a number of photographs and reports of IDF positions.