How extensive are Israel’s intelligence operations inside Iran?

Intelligence operations years successful the making were down Israel’s targeting of cardinal subject positions and leaders successful Iran this month, according to the Israeli press.

The strikes that took retired overmuch of Iran’s cardinal antiaircraft infrastructure and killed subject commanders are credited to an Israeli quality work that is claimed to person infiltrated overmuch of Iran’s information apparatus.

People stitchery adjacent damaged vehicles successful the aftermath of Israeli strikes, successful Tehran, Iran, connected June 13, 2025 [Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency]

Inside Iran, scores of radical person reportedly been arrested and accused of spying for Mossad, Israel’s quality agency, providing media enactment for Israel oregon disturbing nationalist opinion.

Just a fewer days ago, the Iranian authorities ordered elder officials and their information teams not to usage smartphones connected to the net to debar Israeli hacking of delicate communications. Iranian information services, meanwhile, are understood to person asked the nationalist to study immoderate gathering they person rented to companies oregon individuals successful the past mates of years.

Iran’s crackdown follows what has been framed arsenic an unprecedented Israeli quality cognition that led to its caller strikes connected the country, but however extended has the infiltration been, and however agelong has it been successful the works?

How ample a relation did Israeli quality play successful its archetypal strikes connected Iran?

A important one.

Shortly aft Israel’s strikes connected Iran, stories of the quality operations that preceded the “unprecedented” onslaught flooded the media. In interviews fixed by elder members of Israel’s quality community, details were fixed astir however some quality quality and AI were utilized successful tandem to signifier the attack, which they claimed hobbled overmuch of Iran’s aerial defences.

On June 17, conscionable days aft the strike, The Associated Press published interviews with 10 Israeli quality and subject officials with cognition of the strike.

“This onslaught is the culmination of years of enactment by the Mossad to people Iran’s atomic program,” Sima Shine, the erstwhile probe manager of Mossad, told the AP. The portion besides elaborate however Israeli agents were capable to smuggle successful a bid of drones and rocket systems into Iran, which were past utilized to onslaught galore targets determined by a United States AI exemplary moving connected information provided to it by Israeli agents wrong Iran, arsenic good arsenic accusation gained from erstwhile strikes.

Are the quality operations ongoing?

They look to be.

Israel claimed that the locations of 2 elder officers successful Iran’s Quds force, Saeed Izadi and Behnam Shahryari, who were killed implicit the weekend, had been determined by its quality networks.

Earlier, connected June 17, Israel was capable to find and termination 1 of Iran’s astir elder subject figures, Major-General Ali Shademani, and that was conscionable 4 days aft the assassination of his predecessor successful a targeted aerial strike.

“I don’t deliberation radical realise however overmuch audacity we have,” Israeli subject quality specializer Miri Eisin told The Observer successful the United Kingdom, noting that a people would person to wholly escaped themselves of immoderate physics devices that could link to the net to debar detection. “Most radical don’t instrumentality themselves disconnected the grid,” she said. “You tin get to anybody.”

“Israel apt has astir 30 to 40 cells operating wrong Iran,” defence expert Hamze Attar told Al Jazeera from Luxembourg, “with astir of those made up of collaborators, alternatively than Israeli agents, which besides makes Iran look weak,” helium said, citing the assembly instructions recovered connected the hardware seized by authorities.

“Some of those cells volition beryllium liable for smuggling weapons from Israel, others for carrying retired attacks and others for quality gathering,” helium said.

How agelong has this been going on?

Israeli quality operations wrong Iran are thing new. According to analysts, operations designed to monitor, infiltrate, sabotage and undermine Iranian defences day backmost to the Iranian gyration of 1979.

Speaking successful November 2024, Ali Larijani, a elder advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, acknowledged the grade of Israeli operations successful Iran, telling the ISNA quality bureau that the “problem of infiltration had go precise superior successful caller years”.

“There person been immoderate instances of negligence for years,” the erstwhile parliamentary talker and atomic negotiator added.

The detonation of connection devices utilized by the equipped Lebanese radical Hezbollah successful September 2024 was lone imaginable aft the infiltration of the group’s proviso concatenation by Israeli intelligence. Likewise, the assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was carried retired aft details of his determination were obtained by Israeli agents. Similar subterfuge was besides utilized successful the targeted assassination of Hamas’s governmental chief Ismael Haniyeh successful Tehran successful July 2024, erstwhile an explosive device placed successful his residence weeks earlier was detonated.

In the past 2 decades, Israel has killed a fig of Iran’s atomic scientists, including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated by a remote-controlled weapon mounted connected the backmost of a pick-up truck. Israel was besides liable for the merchandise of the Stuxnet machine microorganism successful 2010, which was thought to person infected 30,000 computers crossed astatine slightest 14 atomic facilities successful Iran.

Does Iran besides spy connected Israel?

Absolutely.

In precocious October, Israel’s interior information agency, Shin Bet, announced the arrest of 7 Israeli citizens connected suspicion of spying for Iran. A time earlier, authorities had detained different radical of 7 successful Haifa, alleging they had assisted Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence during wartime.

At the time, Israeli constabulary sources indicated that further covert networks with ties to Iran whitethorn beryllium progressive wrong the country.

If this is simply a covert operation, wherefore bash we cognize truthful overmuch astir it?

Because, according to analysts, publicity tin besides beryllium a almighty instrumentality successful an quality agency’s toolkit.

Publicising the grade to which an opposing country’s information infrastructure tin beryllium infiltrated and sabotaged undermines that country’s morale portion scoring points astatine home.

“It’s intelligence warfare,” Attar said. “If I support saying that I’ve breached into your location and you support denying it, past I contiguous impervious of having done that, however bash you look? You look weak. Israel volition support bragging astir the grade of their infiltration successful the anticipation that Iran volition contradict it, past they’ll supply further impervious of it.”