Carrying Nikon cameras, tripods and GoPros, they are accused of travelling the country in 4x4s posing as tour guides should they get caught.

It is believed their actions caused genuine harm. Locations said to have been visited included the Nevatim air base which was targeted in two Iranian missile attacks and the Golani training base, where a drone attack killed four people in October.

The spy network is also accused of carrying out surveillance on a football stadium and a museum with rewards paid in cryptocurrency or in cash from Russian “tourists”.

As they travelled as far south as the resort city of Eilat on the Red Sea, it is claimed they answered to an Azerbaijani-born handler and an Iranian agent called “Orkhan”.

Targeted because of financial difficulties, Mr Nisanov went on to recruit the other members including his son Yigal Nissan, 20, who is said to have deserted the air force 15 months after joining.

As the Iranians’ ambitions grew, the group was even instructed to charter a “yacht with a skipper” in September with plans to set sail for Cyprus to observe Israeli ports.

It was abandoned because of their handler’s worries about cost and they were later arrested.

Asked to photograph bomb shelters

While the Haifa outfit was at its peak, 70 miles south in the city of Lod a married couple were said to have been working for a man who appears to be the same Azerbaijani handler.

Rafael Guliyev, 32, was lured in by a “test mission” to take a picture of the Moldovan embassy before carrying out a series of orders, some with the assistance of his wife Lala, 29.

Mr Guliyev, a citizen of 25 years, was said to have been paid $26,000 (£20,000) for his efforts which included driving round the Glilot Junction area, home to Mossad, while filming from his dashboard.

In orders that suggest Tehran has considered targeting civilians, he was asked to photograph public bomb shelters in Tel Aviv late in 2023 and posters of hostages.

Mr Guliyev was allegedly paid $1,200 (£924) to photograph graves of victims of the Oct 7 massacre at military and civilian cemeteries in Petah Tikva, Kfar Saba, Jerusalem and Be’er Sheva.

He told a court he “didn’t mean to harm the country” but was “tempted by easy money” and said in some cases he thought he “could trick the Iranians and only took mock photos”.

Others were caught as their orders from Tehran escalated rapidly. Rami Aliyan, 23, and six others from the Arab neighbourhood of Beit Salafa, were arrested about two weeks after their Iranian handler first made contact on Telegram.

After initial missions to hang signs, spray graffiti and torch cars, within days they were being offered $50,000 (£38,500) to assassinate a nuclear scientist, kill their family and burn their home.

There was allegedly a midnight reconnaissance mission to the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot where the scientist worked while other members of the gang sourced grenades and a Glock 19 handgun.

However, their frugal handler ordered them to find a cheaper weapon instead suggesting a Carlo, an improvised submachine gun made by Palestinian terrorists.

They were arrested before the alleged assassination could take place but despite the advanced nature of the plot, experts said the spy cells involving Jewish Israelis were most concerning.

Michael Koubi, the former chief interrogator for Shin Bet, said: “I interrogated a lot during my life, I can tell you that I didn’t find a network like those seven that were [allegedly] spying for Iran. They got everything from Israel and after that the Iranians convinced them to work with them.”

He said security services would usually know immediately when spies had been recruited and it should not have taken two years for the cell to be discovered.

“It’s a fault that we didn’t catch them,” he said, adding that it was “really critical information they gave to Iran who transfer all of that to Hezbollah”.

Beni Sabti from the INSS, a think tank, said that Iran’s recruitment tactics were usually low level and involved spamming people’s social media accounts with an offer of a small fee for a trivial task such as a picture of a landmark.

He added: “Two, three times, the bigger missions come and he’s already hooked. It’s kind of like narcotics. They are addicted. Sometimes you don’t know at all who you are working for, sometimes you lie to yourself.”

Mr Sabti said that Iran’s spying had “escalated in these last two, three years” and that Tehran was focused on the quantity of threats.

“It’s not so sophisticated. They go for everyone. Iran is a very big country and they have a lot of time to waste, they have a lot of money to waste,” he added.