By: Fern Sidman

In the aftermath of a war that many feared could spiral into a regional cataclysm, new intelligence is shedding light on what Ynet News has described as one of the most sophisticated, lethal campaigns ever orchestrated by Israel’s intelligence services. According to newly surfaced reporting from Iran International and corroborated by Israeli media, including Ynet News, Israel’s Mossad agency executed a sweeping campaign of targeted assassinations and cyber warfare, decimating the Islamic Republic’s upper military echelons during the recent conflict.

More than a month after the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Iran, the strategic depth and surgical precision of Israel’s operations are only now coming into full view. Ynet News has characterized the effort as “unparalleled in modern covert warfare,” and opposition-linked Iranian sources have gone so far as to describe it as “one of the most unusual security and military defeats of the modern era.”

At the center of these revelations is an extraordinary account of psychological manipulation and technological prowess. According to the report at Ynet News, Mossad initiated the campaign by leaking intelligence about the timing of an impending Israeli strike through a controlled source close to Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The false intelligence was designed not to mislead, but to entice. The operation reportedly succeeded in drawing Salami to a specific location that had already been prepared as the site of his assassination. It is not yet confirmed whether Salami survived the war or was indeed neutralized, but Iranian sources suggest his fate remains in question.

In a separate but equally precise operation, Mossad allegedly orchestrated the deaths of Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the IRGC’s powerful aerospace commander, and his senior deputies. Ynet News reported that the officials were summoned to a meeting that never existed—a sophisticated ruse so convincing that all attended. Once gathered, the group was eliminated by a single missile strike. The strike reportedly left no survivors, and Ynet characterized the incident as a “masterpiece of operational deception.”

These operations did not occur in isolation. In what may be an unprecedented demonstration of foreign intelligence penetration into the Islamic Republic’s wartime command apparatus, Mossad is believed to have assassinated General Ali Shadmani, the newly appointed head of Iran’s supreme military headquarters, just four days after the death of his predecessor, Gholam Ali Rashid.

According to the information provided in the Ynet News report, the tracking of Shadmani involved a multi-layered operation that combined cyber infiltration, DNA analysis, and biometric surveillance. Sources state that Israeli cyber units implanted malware into Tehran’s municipal camera systems, enabling the use of facial recognition software enhanced by artificial intelligence to identify and monitor Shadmani’s movements. Once he was located in the Zaferania district of Tehran, a drone strike was carried out on June 27, terminating his command.

The success of this operation points to a level of cyber and human intelligence integration that rivals any global intelligence service today.

In another high-profile blow, Iranian officials have confirmed that Mohammad Kazemi, the chief of IRGC intelligence, along with two senior deputies, were killed in a meticulously planned Israeli strike. As reported by Ynet News, the officials were lured into a so-called “safe house” in Kurdbacheh alley by an Israeli double agent. The location was not accidental—it was nestled between two kindergartens and a girls’ school, raising stark questions about the IRGC’s choice of operational hideouts and their proximity to civilian infrastructure.

Once the house was confirmed to be clear of children and staff, Israeli forces launched a precision strike exactly ten minutes after the final students left the adjacent buildings. The report at Ynet News noted that this decision not only neutralized the intended targets but also reaffirmed Israel’s longstanding policy of minimizing civilian casualties, even during high-risk operations.

While the kinetic campaign unfolded on Iranian soil, an equally aggressive cyber war was raging in digital space. On Tuesday, Iran’s communications minister acknowledged publicly that the Islamic Republic had suffered over 20,000 cyberattacks during the span of the conflict. While many of these were reportedly deflected, the admission underscores the scale and intensity of Israel’s parallel campaign to paralyze Iranian infrastructure.

These cyberattacks were likely aimed at disrupting telecommunications, defense logistics, and financial systems—an invisible war designed to sow chaos, limit retaliation capacity, and cripple Tehran’s ability to coordinate its forces.

Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani provided new figures on the human toll of the war. According to the government’s latest estimates, at least 1,062 individuals were killed during the confrontation with Israel, including 102 women and 38 children. The Ynet News report emphasized that these numbers have not been independently verified, and the circumstances surrounding many of the civilian deaths remain contested.

Despite these losses, the broader narrative emerging from Israeli sources is that much of the war’s destruction was self-inflicted—either by Iran’s use of civilians as shields or the collapse of military logistics under the weight of Israeli sabotage. Many of the military sites targeted were deliberately embedded within residential zones, adding a layer of moral complexity to the operational outcomes.

The revelations represent a dramatic escalation in Israel’s capability to conduct intelligence-led warfare far beyond its borders. The successful targeting of senior military figures—at least four of whom rank among Iran’s most influential defense leaders—signals a strategic shift in Israel’s posture from reactive deterrence to preemptive disruption.

The Ynet News report framed these developments within a broader doctrine of “asymmetric deterrence,” whereby Israel employs advanced technology, cyber expertise, and surgical military capabilities to offset the demographic and geographical scale of its adversaries. In doing so, Israel aims not only to defeat enemy strategies but to dismantle them before they can fully coalesce.

While the full political ramifications of these revelations remain to be seen, there is little doubt that the Islamic Republic has been shaken to its core. The war’s abrupt end may have spared the region further devastation, but its effects are likely to be felt for years to come—particularly within Iran’s armed forces and intelligence community, now riddled with fear, suspicion, and uncertainty.

As Ynet News observed, Israel’s intelligence community has “redefined the boundaries of what is possible” in modern warfare. With the Iranian leadership mourning its most experienced commanders and bracing for further exposure, the question looming over Tehran is no longer whether Mossad can reach them—but when it might strike again.

For now, the veil has been lifted, revealing a theater of conflict where data, deception, and drones dictate the outcome—and where Israel, as Ynet News asserted, has left an indelible mark.