Mossad’s covert phone hacks and real-time tracking revealed the secret operation that exposed Iran’s top officials.
Image 1: Mossad’s covert phone hacks and real-time tracking revealed the secret operation that exposed Iran’s top officials. | An artistically Represented Image.

For decades, Israel and Iran have been locked in a covert struggle that stretches far beyond the battlefield. While missiles and drones make the headlines, the most dangerous blows often land silently, inside secure compounds, luxury convoys, and even the homes of Iran’s most powerful men. At the heart of this invisible war lies one of Mossad’s most daring strategies: penetrating Iran’s inner security circles, sometimes even through the very bodyguards tasked with protecting the regime’s elite.

Human Intelligence (HUMINT)

Unlike cyberattacks or airstrikes, human intelligence requires direct access, which means recruitment, coercion, or infiltration. Bodyguards, drivers, and aides are often the closest people to high-value targets. They are familiar with travel routes, security protocols, schedules, and habits. According to intelligence experts, Mossad has a history of leveraging financial pressure, ideological disillusionment, and even blackmail to turn such insiders into informants.

Key Incidents That Point to Deep Infiltration

1. The Nuclear Scientist Killings (2010–2020)

Between 2010 and 2020, several Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated, some in broad daylight. These attacks often took place despite heavy security details. Investigations suggested that the attackers knew exact routes, convoy patterns, and timing, implying either inside leaks or a breach of convoy communications.

2. Tracking Qasem Soleimani

Before Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in 2020, Israeli intelligence reportedly tracked his movements for years. Leaked reports indicated that Mossad may have provided key location intelligence to the United States, a feat that would have required information from someone within or close to Soleimani’s security network.

3. The Assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (2020)

Perhaps the most dramatic operation was the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist. He was gunned down with a remote-controlled weapon mounted on a pickup truck, a precision strike that required intimate knowledge of his convoy schedule and exact location.

4. The Quiet War (2021–2023)

More recently, multiple IRGC officers and defense scientists have died under mysterious circumstances, such as car crashes, poisonings, and shootings. Iranian state media has repeatedly blamed “Zionist agents,” while also purging suspected insiders from within the IRGC.

Operation Rising Lion – 2025

In June 2025, Israel launched a surprise offensive against Iran under the codename Operation Rising Lion.

The opening salvo was devastating within hours; precision strikes killed top generals, nuclear scientists, and key Revolutionary Guard commanders.

Iran’s top leaders had long avoided smartphones, wary of digital surveillance. But their guards and drivers were far less cautious. Many carried personal phones, and some even posted on social media, leaving a digital trail.

According to officials quoted by The New York Times, Israel exploited this weakness. By hacking into these devices, Israeli intelligence tracked the movements of Iran’s most heavily protected officials in real time.

The results were swift and surgical. On June 13, precision missiles killed several senior commanders, paralyzing Tehran’s chain of command for hours. Three days later, a 100-foot-deep bunker hosting a top-level meeting was struck, injuring President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“Using so many bodyguards is a weakness we exploited,” one Israeli defense official admitted to the NYT. Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, the new head of the IRGC, acknowledged that while Israel employed human intelligence, much of the data-gathering relied on electronic surveillance.

By the war’s end, dozens of top officials and scientists were dead, a massive setback to Iran’s military and nuclear ambitions. Despite Tehran’s missile and drone retaliation, the damage had been done. Current and former Israeli officials told The New York Times that Operation Rising Lion was the culmination of years of Mossad and Military Intelligence efforts to build a sophisticated network capable of striking Iran’s leadership with pinpoint precision.

How Mossad hacked Iran’s bodyguards

  • Financial Incentives: Large bribes to turn disillusioned guards into informants.
  • Ideological Appeal: Exploiting those who are secretly opposed to the regime.
  • Blackmail: Using kompromat gathered through surveillance or hacking.
  • Foreign Contact: Recruiting guards during foreign trips, medical treatment, or online interactions.

Each method reflects a patient, multi-year process, a hallmark of Mossad’s reputation for long-term planning.

Iran’s Countermeasures

In response, Iran has tightened its internal security:

  • Rotating security personnel frequently.
  • Conducting loyalty and background checks within the IRGC.
  • Increasing surveillance on its own guards.
  • Launching counterintelligence sweeps and public executions of alleged spies.

Yet, the continued success of covert strikes suggests that infiltration remains a serious vulnerability.

The Bigger Picture: Israel vs. Iran in 2025

The covert war shows no sign of slowing. Each assassination, each sabotage strike, sends a message: Iran’s most powerful men are never completely safe. For Israel, these operations aim to slow Iran’s nuclear ambitions and project psychological pressure. For Iran, the leaks represent an existential challenge, the fear that betrayal could come from within.

Conclusion

In the end, the most devastating weapon in this shadow war may not be drones or cyberweapons, but mistrust. Every time a convoy route is leaked or a high-value target is killed, paranoia grows within Tehran’s leadership. When bodyguards themselves become potential spies, the very concept of security collapses from the inside.

This is not just a story of espionage; it is a warning that the battle for Iran’s future may be fought as much in the minds of its protectors as on the streets of its cities.

Sources

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