JERUSALEM — The prosecution filed a request to revoke the Israeli citizenship of Rani Awf and Shadi Aidi. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested the citizenship revocation, exercising his authority as interior minister.

The citizenship revocation request was submitted to the Central District Court. The attorney-general approved the request to revoke citizenship. This filing marks a specific legal application of state power against two individuals already in custody for security offenses.

The prosecution stated this is the first time the state has sought to revoke citizenship through a special procedure allowing the request to be brought before the court that handled the criminal case. The special citizenship revocation procedure was added to the Citizenship Law in 2011. The 2011 procedure allows a court that convicts someone of terrorism or certain serious security offenses to revoke their citizenship if the interior minister requests it and the attorney-general approves.

Rani Awf and Shadi Aidi are Israeli prisoners convicted of providing security information to an enemy during wartime. The two defendants worked at Cellcom and had extensive access to the company’s computer systems and infrastructure. Their positions within the telecommunications provider granted them the ability to view and potentially manipulate critical digital assets.

Awf and Aidi took steps to advance a plan to shut down Cellcom’s computer and information systems during a war or military operation to assist Hamas. Awf maintained prolonged contact with senior Hamas officials in Turkey. Through these communications, the defendants coordinated efforts to compromise Israeli infrastructure from abroad.

Awf, with Aidi’s assistance, passed along sensitive information about Israeli communications infrastructure, Cellcom’s cybersecurity systems, and ways of bypassing them. The pair planned to install technological tools that could be used to disrupt or disable Cellcom’s communications network during wartime. These actions targeted the operational integrity of a major national communications provider.

Awf and Aidi were convicted of conspiring to assist an enemy during wartime and providing information to an enemy with the intention of harming state security. Awf was convicted of disclosing an intention to commit treason and maintaining contact with a foreign agent. The court found that their activities constituted a direct threat to national security during a period of armed conflict.

In 2024, the court sentenced Aidi to five-and-a-half years in prison, a suspended sentence, and a fine. These sentences followed their convictions for the security-related charges brought against them.

The state wrote that the offenses of which the defendants were convicted justify revoking their citizenship. The prosecution wrote that the steps taken by the two were intended to damage a central Israeli communications network during a military operation to help the enemy in its war against the state. The state described the actions as acts of treason in the fullest sense and a severe violation of the basic obligation of loyalty to the country.

This case represents the first use of a 2011 legal amendment allowing citizenship revocation for terrorism-related convictions through the original criminal court. The procedure requires a request from the interior minister and approval from the attorney-general, a threshold met in this instance by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The application of this law to Awf and Aidi tests the boundaries of citizenship as a conditional status for those convicted of aiding enemies during wartime.

The defendants' roles at Cellcom provided them with the access necessary to threaten communications infrastructure, a critical component of national security during military operations. Their conviction for conspiring to assist Hamas and providing sensitive information reflects the risks posed by insider threats within essential service providers. The state's characterization of their actions as treason reflects the severity with which such breaches of loyalty are viewed under Israeli law.