How Israel launched attacks from inside Iran to sow chaos during the war

Al Jazeera

4 days ago

Gilan, Iran – The Israeli military used hundreds of fighter jets, armed drones and refuelling planes to attack Iran during its 12-day war backed by the United States, but it was also heavily assisted by operations launched from deep within Iranian soil.
Just hours after the Israeli army and Mossad spy agency started their attacks before dawn on June 13, they released footage that appeared to have been recorded at night from undisclosed locations inside Iran.
One grainy video showed Mossad operatives, camouflaged and wearing tactical gear including night-vision goggles, crouched in what looked like desert terrain, deploying weapons that aimed to destroy Iran's air defence systems to help pave the way for incoming attack aircraft.
Others showed projectiles, with mounted cameras, descending to slam into Iranian missile defence batteries, as well as ballistic missile platforms. The projectiles appeared to be Spike missiles – relatively small, precision-guided anti-armour missiles that can be programmed to fly to targets that are out of their line of sight.
Iranian authorities also confirmed the use of the weapons, with state media showing images of remnants of customised Spike missile launchers that were discovered in one open area. They said the weapons were equipped with 'internet-based automation and remote-controlled systems' and were operated by 'terrorist Mossad agents'.
The move partly echoed an Israeli operation in November 2020 that killed Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior figure in Iran's nuclear programme, who was gunned down in a city near Tehran while moving in a vehicle with his wife and bodyguards. Iranian authorities at the time confirmed that the assassination was carried out using remote-controlled and artificial intelligence-guided equipment, with Israeli media reporting that a one-tonne gun was smuggled into Iran in pieces by Mossad and mounted on the back of a pick-up truck, which exploded after Fakhrizadeh was killed.
Iran executed three men on Wednesday morning in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan, accused of being involved in Fakhrizadeh's death and other assassinations.
Drone manufacturing inside Iran
Israel also appears to have used a large number of explosives-laden small drones and quadcopters during the 12-day war to overwhelm Iranian defences as part of its multipronged assault operations.
Iranian media reported throughout the war that air defences across the country were activated to counter the small drones, as well as larger military-grade counterparts like the Hermes 900, several of which Iran claimed to have shot down. However, the exact number of drones launched and how successful they were in hitting their targets cannot be corroborated by Al Jazeera.
The smaller drones attracted a lot of attention and forced authorities to muster large-scale search operations to neutralise them, as Israeli warplanes dropped more bombs across the country and US President Donald Trump briefly rhetorically backed the possibility of regime change.
Soon, authorities found pick-up trucks with customised cargo beds that were made to accommodate small, pre-programmed drones that they said could be driven close to their intended targets before launching. Such a strategy has been used successfully elsewhere as well, including at the start of June when Ukraine managed to destroy as much as a third of Russia's strategic bomber fleet on the tarmac of four airfields deep inside Russian territory.
Iranian authorities organised search parties, particularly at night, consisting of security forces who patrolled the streets on motorcycles or vehicles to look for any suspicious trucks or movement. Armed and masked security forces also set up countless roadblocks and checkpoints in sprawling Tehran and across the country, including in northern provinces where millions travelled after fleeing the capital, which typically stopped and searched pick-up trucks with covered cargo beds.
After what the Israelis said were years of preparations, their operatives appear to have been able to set up small production lines of the unmanned vehicles inside Iran.
One such operation was discovered in Shahr-e Rey in southern Tehran, where state media said a three-storey building was dedicated to churning out drones, homemade bombs and a large volume of explosives.
Security forces located a clandestine drone-manufacturing site in Shahr-e Rey, south of Tehran.The three floors building, was used by Israeli agents to assemble and store UAVs intended for terrorists operations.Officials also found homemade bombs and over 200 kg of explosives. pic.twitter.com/wrZz1vc12x
— Tasnim News Agency (@Tasnimnews_EN) June 15, 2025
State television also showed another similar operation, in which six Iranian 'Mossad agents' were assembling quadcopters with small bombs attached under them, as well as bombs with timers, grenades and other weapons. There were also reports of vehicles planted with explosives, but there was no official confirmation by Iranian authorities.
Some of the arrested suspects were shown confessing on state television with their hands bound and their eyes covered. Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohsen-Ejei and Tehran's public prosecutor Ali Salehi personally interrogated one unnamed suspect on state television, who said he tried to film air defences for the Mossad from rooftops.
'We are all under surveillance'
The Israeli military's chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, confirmed in a video statement on Wednesday that commando forces 'operated covertly deep in enemy territory and carried out operations that granted us operational freedom of action'. He did not say whether he was referring to the commandos shown at the start of the operation on the first night or other potential operations.
Iranian officials have not directly commented on claimed Israeli commando operations from inside Iranian territory.
But authorities continue to announce dozens of arrests across Iran in relation to collaboration with Israel and the US, and have so far executed at least six people accused of collaborating since the start of the war.
Israeli intelligence operations inside Iran are believed to have been a major contributor to the success of the June 13 surprise attacks that started the war, which killed a large number of top military commanders and nuclear scientists while also incapacitating some air defences and hitting missile launch sites in an effort to limit Iran's retaliation.
Huge cyberattacks launched by pro-Israel hacking groups also temporarily took down two of the country's biggest banks, as well as the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
An undated video circulated by state-linked media this week showed Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the assassinated head of the critical aerospace division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), saying during a speech that 'we are all under surveillance' by Mossad through mobile phones and other communications devices.
Hajizadeh, who was killed while holding a meeting with a host of other top aerospace commanders in an underground bunker in or around Tehran, urged others to exercise caution and turn off and periodically replace their mobile phones during the speech.
As part of their response to the Israeli offensive, Iranian authorities also cut off internet access, at one point choking off 97 percent of the massive country's connectivity, according to NetBlocks internet observatory. It was one of the most comprehensive internet blackouts ever imposed in Iran – and likely anywhere else in the world.
The restrictions imposed during the war were mostly lifted by Thursday, two days after a ceasefire announced by Trump took effect.