Israel’s wide-ranging strike against Iran on Friday was years in the making, the result of extensive intelligence gathering on the country’s nuclear sites as well as on top military officials and scientists, according to three Israeli officials with knowledge of the operations.
To pull it off, Israel, in part, would have needed detailed information about the whereabouts and the movements of the officials and scientists, at least four of whom were at the upper levels of the military command.
It was a joint effort between Israeli military intelligence and the Mossad, code named “With the Strength of a Lion,” one of the officials said.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
The Israeli intelligence apparatus has been at the heart of a series of operations aimed at Iran and its proxies in recent years.
Israel assassinated Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote-controlled gun in 2020, and assisted when the United States killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, in a drone strike the same year.
In 2022, two assassins on motorcycles shot and killed Col. Sayad Khodayee, an officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards; Israel confirmed its role to the United States. Last year, Israel was able to kill Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader, by planting an explosive device in a Tehran guesthouse run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Israel also deeply penetrated Iran’s most powerful Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, leading to a spate of attacks in 2024. In September, it targeted members of the militia in elaborate, coordinated attacks using pagers and walkie-talkies, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands. It was also able to infiltrate the group’s communications, culminating in airstrikes the same month that killed the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
In the attack on Friday, Israel targeted nuclear sites in Iran along with air defense as well as missile systems and storage facilities. The extent of the damage was unclear, but the Israeli military said it had struck Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz.
Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv.
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