The prosecution filed a precedent-setting request on Wednesday to revoke the Israeli citizenship of two security prisoners convicted of plotting to help Hamas disable Cellcom’s communications infrastructure during a future war or military operation.
The request against Rani Awf and Shadi Aidi was submitted to the Central District Court at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who holds the interior minister’s authority for the matter, and with the approval of the attorney-general.
According to the prosecution, it is the first time the state has sought to revoke citizenship through a special procedure that allows the request to be brought before the same court that handled the criminal case.
That procedure was added to the Citizenship Law in 2011. It allows a court that convicts someone of terrorism or certain serious security offenses to revoke their citizenship, in addition to imposing a criminal sentence, if the interior minister requests it and the attorney-general approves.
Previously, the state would have had to begin a separate case in an administrative court.
Israeli courts can revoke citizenship upon terrorism conviction
“The offenses of which the defendants were convicted justify revoking their citizenship,” the state wrote, calling the case an “extreme and exceptional” violation of the basic loyalty citizens owe to the country.
Awf and Aidi worked at Cellcom and had extensive access to the telecommunications company’s computer systems and infrastructure.
According to the prosecution, the two took a series of steps to advance a plan to shut down Cellcom’s computer and information systems during a war or military operation in order to assist Hamas.
Awf maintained prolonged contact with senior Hamas officials in Turkey and, with Aidi’s assistance, passed along sensitive information about Israeli communications infrastructure, Cellcom’s cybersecurity systems, and ways of bypassing them.
The two also planned to install technological tools that could later be used to disrupt or disable Cellcom’s communications network during wartime.
The network serves both civilian customers and Israeli security forces, meaning that a successful attack could have damaged a major national communications system at a particularly sensitive time.
The two suspects were convicted of assisting an enemy, treason
Awf and Aidi were convicted, based on their confessions, of conspiring to assist an enemy during wartime and providing information to an enemy with the intention of harming state security.
Awf was also convicted of disclosing an intention to commit treason and maintaining contact with a foreign agent.
In 2024, the court sentenced Awf to 11 years in prison, a suspended sentence, and a fine. Aidi was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, a suspended sentence, and a fine.
The state filed the citizenship request after they were sentenced, as a continuation of the criminal proceedings against them.
In its request, the prosecution argued that the two had acted for nationalist and ideological reasons and had sought to assist Palestinian terrorist organizations by targeting one of Israel’s central communications networks.
The state described their actions as “acts of treason in the fullest sense” and a severe violation of their most basic obligation of loyalty to the country.
It also stressed the potential damage that could have been caused had the planned cyberattack been carried out.
“The steps taken by the two were intended to damage a central Israeli communications network during a military operation, in order to help the enemy in its war against the state,” the prosecution wrote.
Their conduct therefore represented “a clear and extreme breach of allegiance,” it said.
The state argued that citizenship-revocation provisions were intended for precisely such exceptional cases, in which a citizen’s actions amount to turning against the country and severing their most fundamental connection to it.
“Their actions continued over many years, involved advance planning, and were carried out consistently and systematically,” the prosecution wrote.
The two exploited information they had obtained through their work and intended to use it to assist “the most dangerous of Israel’s enemies,” it added.
The fact that they planned for the communications network to be disrupted specifically during a war or military operation made their conduct particularly serious, according to the state.
