During Operation Rising Lion, Israeli strikes targeted ballistic missile sites, air defenses, military commanders, and scientists over a 12-day period. Former intelligence chief David Barnea disclosed that covert video releases were designed to overwhelm local counterintelligence, prompting Iranian forces to apprehend thousands of unconnected residents. Rights monitors subsequently documented massive crackdowns affecting journalists, activists, and foreign nationals, while Iranian officials defended the measures as vital protection against domestic sabotage networks.
Key points
Israeli intelligence purposely distributed operational videos to overwhelm Iranian counte…: Israeli intelligence purposely distributed operational videos to overwhelm Iranian counterintelligence and protect authentic field assets.
Innocent Iranian citizens who had no connection to the foreign agency were swept up and e…: Innocent Iranian citizens who had no connection to the foreign agency were swept up and executed amid the resulting chaos.
Critics denounced the media strategy as a reckless policy that endangered thousands of or…: Critics denounced the media strategy as a reckless policy that endangered thousands of ordinary citizens to mask covert activities.
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Former Mossad chief David Barnea has said Israel intentionally released images of their covert operation in Iran during the June 2025 conflict to provoke mass arrests and make it harder for Iranian forces to find real Israeli agents.
“One of the reasons we immediately released an official video on the morning of Operation Rising Lion, with the Mossad logo, was to protect the agents who were there,” Barnea said, according to comments The Jerusalem Post reported on 25 October.
Barnea said the leak of the footage of Israeli operations in Iran was not just an attempt to showcase the Mossad’s reach but also a strategy to overwhelm Iranian counterintelligence, causing them to make mass arrests, making it more difficult to distinguish operatives from ordinary citizens.
“We wanted to make sure they arrested so many people in Iran that they wouldn’t be able to distinguish the wheat from the chaff and would eventually release everyone,” he said.
Barnea said Iranian authorities arrested 21,000 people during the operation.
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