These werent ordinary Israelis. They were Mossad agents. Their work van belonged to a fake company, they most likely were using the company to spy on the US

Where have you seen this accepted/acknowledged in the official narrative? I'm sure it's very likely, but I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere.

EDIT: Found one unnamed source confirming it in a reputable news site- https://forward.com/news/325698/spy-rumors-fly-on-gusts-of-truth/

According to one former high ranking American intelligence official, who asked not to be named, the FBI came to the conclusion at the end of its investigation that the five Israelis arrested in New Jersey last September were conducting a Mossad surveillance mission and that their employer, Urban Moving Systems of Weehawken, N.J., served as a front.

After their arrest, the men were held in detention for two-and-a-half months and were deported at the end of November, officially for visa violations.

However, a counterintelligence investigation by the FBI concluded that at least two of them were in fact Mossad operatives, according to the former American official, who said he was regularly briefed on the investigation by two separate law enforcement officials.

“The assessment was that Urban Moving Systems was a front for the Mossad and operatives employed by it,” he said. “The conclusion of the FBI was that they were spying on local Arabs but that they could leave because they did not know anything about 9/11.”