On Monday, a court in Saudi Arabia began the trial of two Jordanian nationals of Palestinian descent accused of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, according to Arab News.
Both men reportedly stand accused in front of a judge at the Specialized Criminal Court for "cooperating with the Israeli Mossad agency to spy on Saudi Arabia and for planning to carry out terrorist acts during the 2014 Hajj pilgrimage".
In addition, they were also charged for supporting a designated terror organization and misleading authorities throughout the investigation.
UAE-based Gulf News reported that the two had arrived in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah but did not leave the kingdom as scheduled.
The prosecution has called for the accused to receive a strict punishment in order to prevent others to do the same in the future.
No further details about the case were given in the report.
This is not the first reported case of espionage
In July 2013, a Saudi court sentenced a local man to 15 years in jail for offering to spy for Israel while he was visiting Jordan.
At the time, the court found the man guilty of attempted espionage for Israel after he was reported to have gone to the Israeli embassy in Amman and asked to meet its officials.
In October 2013, a Jordanian citizen was convicted by a Saudi court for spying for Israel. Riyadh criminal court found him guilty of "writing to the Israeli prime minister and communicating with a Zionist [Israeli] intelligence officer" by email and receiving a financial payment.
The court sentenced him to nine years in jail in addition to 80 lashes.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and does not officially recognize Israel. It has maintained for years that normalizing relations with Israel depend on an Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands captured during the 1967 Middle East war, territory Palestinians seek for a future state.
However, in the recent past, increased tensions between Riyadh and Tehran has fueled speculation that shared interests may push Saudi Arabia and Israel to work together against a common Iranian threat.
The United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and all of its regional allies accuse Iran of sponsoring proxy groups across the Middle East in a bid to dominate the region.
In April, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that Israelis were entitled to live peacefully on their own land. Last month, for the first time ever, Saudi Arabia opened its airspace to a commercial flight to Israel.
It must also be noted that the Saudi government has repeatedly called for the recognition of a Palestinian state build on the lands that Israel captured in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967.
That sovereign state would compose of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem as its capital.
