The case of Ghazi Falah, the geography professor from the University of Akron who has been under arrest in Israel since July 8, took a new turn on Wednesday, when an Israeli court removed a gag order that had forbidden his lawyer to speak to the press. According to a statement made in court by the security agency in charge of the case, Mr. Falah is under investigation for engaging in espionage in the service of Israel's enemies.
The gag order, which also forbade the Israeli press to report the arrest, was lifted in response to a lawsuit filed by Ha'aretz, an Israeli daily newspaper. Ha'aretz identified the enemies Falah is accused of spying for as Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, and Iran.
Mr. Falah, an Arab who holds dual Canadian-Israeli citizenship, arrived in Israel three days before his arrest. According to his son, Naail, he made an unplanned visit to the country of his birth when he learned that his mother, who still lives here, had been hospitalized with a brain tumor.
Hussein Abu-Hussein, Mr. Falah's lawyer, confirmed that Mr. Falah had been arrested while taking photographs at Rosh ha Niqra, an Israeli tourist site and post on the Lebanese border, where a naval base is also located.
When a security guard at the site told him to stop taking pictures, Mr. Falah began arguing with the guard, who called the police, Mr. Abu-Hussein said. Mr. Falah told the police that he was taking photographs of the border area in preparation for a conference he is organizing on Israel's borders. He also said that he had taken similar pictures on the other side of the border on an earlier trip to Lebanon. And he said that he had visited Tehran in an academic capacity.
Mr. Abu-Hussein said that Mr. Falah's argument with the security guard had been "a momentary act of foolishness." He also said that, when the police examined the pictures he had taken, they found that one included an antenna from a military installation in Nahariyya, a city just to the south of Rosh ha Niqra. Mr. Falah said that he had not realized that the antenna was a military one.
In a statement to Ha'aretz, Mr. Falah said, "I have never made any connections, secret or illegal, with intelligence or terror sources."
Mr. Abu-Hussein also noted that Mr. Falah had been arrested four days before the recent hostilities broke out between Israel and Hezbollah.
He said that the court had extended the arrest of Mr. Falah, who has not yet been charged with any crime, until Sunday. But a district-court panel will hear an appeal on Thursday. Mr. Abu-Hussein said he expected that Mr. Falah would be released shortly.
Naail Falah and some of Mr. Falah's academic colleagues have been conducting a public campaign calling for his release.
Paul Herold, a spokesman for the University of Akron, in Ohio, broke two and a half weeks of silence from the university on Wednesday. He confirmed that the administration had been providing officials in Canada and the United States with documentation of Mr. Falah's employment and academic credentials.
"We have been working through diplomatic channels both in the United States and Canada to provide helpful information that may help secure his return to the U.S.," said Mr. Herold.
For the first several days of Mr. Falah's detention, the university declined to comment on his predicament. "We've just been very conscious of the sensitivity of the Middle East situation," said Mr. Herold.
Mr. Herold said that Mr. Falah's colleagues at the university are very concerned for his safety.
John Gravois contributed to this article from Washington.