Report Details Israel's 'Ruthlessly Effective' Shadow War on Iran, Hezbollah

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – A year-long "ruthlessly effective" campaign by Israel’s intelligence agencies has transformed the Middle East, striking deep inside Iran and decapitating the leadership of Hezbollah through a series of technologically advanced and daring operations, according to a detailed investigation by The Sunday Times.

The report, published on Saturday, outlines how a string of high-profile assassinations and sophisticated attacks, including the killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, marked a "pivotal moment" in Israel's security posture, shifting its focus from Gaza to its most powerful enemies.

According to The Sunday Times, these operations showcased the deep penetration of Israeli intelligence into Iran and its "axis of resistance." The simultaneous hits on Shukr and Haniyeh on July 30 of last year sent a powerful message. Colonel Ofer Guterman, a former intelligence analyst for Israeli prime ministers, told the newspaper that Israel's services were "shifting the war toward the northern front."

The strike in Tehran was particularly significant. Major General Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser, told The Sunday Times the operation was designed to demonstrate Israel’s reach. "Guys, we have agents everywhere, including in your official guesthouse of the Revolutionary Guard," he said, explaining the message to Iran and Hamas: "You are not immune."

The Sunday Times report details that the operation to kill Haniyeh began with the interception of communications by Israeli military intelligence (Aman), but required a Mossad agent to plant the bomb inside the guesthouse.

This assassination was part of what the newspaper describes as a year-long onslaught that followed the intelligence failure of Oct. 7, 2023. While Israeli agencies have claimed major coups against Iran and Hezbollah, the report notes that these successes are set against the backdrop of the failure to predict the Hamas attack and the brutal, ongoing campaign in Gaza.

Amidror suggested to The Sunday Times that the Oct. 7 failure was partly a "question of priority," with intelligence efforts focused on Iran and Hezbollah at the expense of Gaza. Matan Kahana, a former member of the Knesset, told the paper that Israeli leaders mistakenly believed that "Qatari money" and work permits would "buy silence from Hamas."

The report highlights a significant transformation within Israel’s security state, driven by technology. Mossad, the foreign intelligence arm, has increasingly leaned on technology, with recruitment sometimes conducted remotely and agent relationships maintained through secure apps. Marc Polymeropoulos, a veteran CIA officer, told The Sunday Times that Mossad's success in building agent networks in "denied area operations" like Iran is "amazing."

The Sunday Times cites European intelligence officers who say Israel often favors "false flag" actions, using "cutouts" from places like Azerbaijan to run agents and mount assassinations, thereby reducing the risk to Israeli citizens. The 2020 killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, carried out by a remotely controlled machine gun, is presented as a prime example of this strategy.

One of the most dramatic operations detailed by the newspaper was the plot to sell booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies to Hezbollah. According to the report, Mossad set up a fake telecommunications business in Hungary to dupe a legitimate Middle East sales agent into selling modified Gold Apollo pagers to Hezbollah. When the devices were remotely detonated on Sept. 17 last year, they wounded about 3,000 Hezbollah members. When the group then reverted to using older walkie-talkies, those were detonated as well.

The report states that these attacks left Hezbollah reeling and paved the way for the Israeli airstrike that killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Zohar Palti, a former senior Mossad officer, told The Sunday Times he believes there is now "an opportunity to take Lebanon to a different place."

This campaign then expanded to a 12-day war against Iran itself. According to The Sunday Times, Israel leveraged long-term intelligence gathering by Aman’s Unit 8200 to map out and assassinate key figures in Iran's nuclear and military programs. The report cites Kahana as claiming, "Israel knew where every one of the high-league nuclear scientists were." Initial strikes were launched from outside Iranian airspace or by uncrewed aircraft, with the paper reporting that Mossad had smuggled lorryloads of drones into Iran, which were then left in place by non-Israelis to attack Iranian missile batteries.

While these successes have led to some public point-scoring between Mossad and Aman, Palti, the Mossad veteran, described this to The Sunday Times as "creative tension" that makes the organizations better.

However, the report also offers a note of caution. Guterman warned of a "curse of richness," where technological prowess leads to an "illusion" of knowing everything. The article concludes that while superior intelligence can deliver "astonishing results," these must be matched to "attainable objectives," noting that in Gaza, Israel has failed to achieve its maximalist war aims or secure the release of hostages.