Inside the Mossad’s Impossible War: The Night Israel Struck Deep Inside Iran

A War Years in the Making

According to a joint ProPublica investigation by veteran journalists Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, the path to June 13 began long before the first drone was launched.

Since 2016, Israeli Air Force pilots had flown secret reconnaissance missions through Iranian airspace, using routes designed to minimize detection. They mapped every radar sweep, every missile silo, every anti-aircraft battery — knowledge that would become the skeleton of the Rising Lion strike plan.

The tipping point came in April 2024, when Iran fired missiles at Israel for the first time in history. Almost all were intercepted, thanks to Israel’s defenses and U.S. support. But in Mossad headquarters, this was seen as a declaration: the gloves were off.

The response was swift and invisible. Mossad activated a commando force of around 70 fighters — none of them Israelis — to strike Iranian air defenses from within. The success of that raid, which destroyed multiple missile sites and killed 20 senior officers in a deception trap, proved the concept: locals could do the impossible.

The Making of “ST”

“ST” grew up in a working-class family in a small town near Tehran. He lived the life of an ordinary college student until the day Basij militia forces stormed his campus. He and several classmates were arrested, beaten, and tortured with electric shocks. The scars on his back never healed.

When he was released, he was consumed by rage. His name reached a Mossad field officer through a relative living abroad. Using encrypted messaging, the contact offered him a meeting in a neighboring country. The offer: work against the regime that had brutalized him.

His only condition — Israel must protect his family if anything went wrong. What sealed the deal was a promise few could refuse in Iran: medical treatment abroad for a sick relative. Mossad’s use of medical assistance as a recruitment tool was decades old, honed in operations against Palestinian terror groups and now expanded to Iranian dissidents.

Recruitment by Design

Mossad recruiters targeted disillusioned Iranians through multiple channels:

• Encrypted social media posts offering help for life-threatening illnesses.
• Quiet scholarships to Western universities for operatives and their families.
• Discreet financial support, funneled through trusted intermediaries.

Once a potential recruit was identified, the process was meticulous. Meetings were arranged in accessible countries — Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, even Thailand or India — where Iranians could enter with minimal visa hurdles.

Candidates underwent intense psychological evaluation. Mossad psychologists observed them from behind one-way mirrors, probing every aspect of their personal history. Polygraphs were routine — before recruitment, after training, and even between missions.

Training the Invisible Army

Training was surgical. Operatives learned how to move unnoticed in their own cities, how to store and transport weapons, and how to strike with precision and vanish. For assassination missions, they trained to ride motorcycles and fire at close range, or plant explosives on vehicles.

Some trained in Israel on full-scale replicas of Iranian targets. Others practiced abroad with Israeli weapons experts. Every operative knew his role in the Rising Lion playbook months before it began.

Smuggling the Arsenal

Iran’s borders are porous, a smugglers’ paradise. Over years, Mossad built relationships with traffickers — and sometimes with corrupt officials — in all seven countries surrounding Iran.

Weapons were disguised as “metal equipment” in legal truck shipments, driven into Iran by unsuspecting truckers. Components were hidden for years in safe houses, maintained by Mossad “infrastructure agents” inside Iran, updated as technology evolved.

By the time Rising Lion was ready, the weapons were already in place — waiting for the order.

The Final Countdown

In the weeks leading up to June 13, the Mossad and IDF Intelligence ramped up surveillance on Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists. Barnea, the Mossad chief, expanded the “Tzomet” unit, dedicated to recruiting and training non-Israeli operatives.

Two commando groups were formed, each with 14 teams of four to six members. Their codenames were drawn from musical notes — a silent nod to the symphony of destruction to come.

The Opening Wave

On the night of June 12, the teams moved into position. The order was clear: leave nothing behind. The few items recovered later by Iranian forces were, as one Israeli official put it, “like finding a candy wrapper.”

By dawn, every targeted air-defense battery marked by Mossad for the Israeli Air Force had been destroyed. Many were near Tehran, in zones where the IAF had never struck before.

One commando team hit a ballistic missile launcher so precisely that Iran delayed its planned counterstrike — giving the Israeli Air Force time to unleash additional waves of attacks without interference.

The Deception Strike

While commandos shredded Iran’s defenses, Mossad cyber units launched a lethal trick. Fake emergency summons were sent to top Iranian military officers, calling them to a secret underground bunker. The coordinates were passed to the Israeli Air Force.

Moments later, precision bombs slammed into the site, killing 20 senior officers — including three chiefs of staff. The shockwave rippled through Iran’s military command.

Eliminating the Scientists

Simultaneously, Mossad targeted 11 senior nuclear scientists. Israeli intelligence had tracked their routines, sleeping quarters, and even the positions of their beds. In the early hours of June 13, precision missiles struck their homes. By sunrise, every one of the scientists was dead.

The goal was clear: cripple Iran’s nuclear brain trust in a single night.

Fordow — The Fortress

The most formidable target was Fordow, Iran’s underground enrichment facility buried nearly 300 meters inside a mountain. Israel lacked the firepower to destroy it alone. The only viable option: the U.S.-made GBU-57 “bunker buster” bomb.

One plan considered: an elite commando assault to seize the facility, demolish the centrifuges, and extract the enriched uranium. Mossad chief Barnea opposed it, fearing capture or death of the operatives.

Then came the November 2024 U.S. election. Donald Trump’s victory changed everything. Confident of U.S. backing, Israel secured American participation. U.S. bombers dropped the GBU-57s, obliterating Fordow.

Aftermath

By the end of Rising Lion, Israel had destroyed half of Iran’s ballistic missiles, 80% of its launchers, crippled its enrichment capacity, and decapitated its nuclear leadership — all while avoiding a full-scale ground invasion.

For Iran’s leadership, the shock was not just in the losses, but in the method: the war was fought not only from the skies but from within, by their own countrymen.

The New Face of War

“Rising Lion” was not just a military operation. It was the culmination of years of intelligence work, recruitment, training, and logistics — a model for future conflicts where local operatives, precision strikes, and cyber deception replace massive troop deployments.

For those who planned it, the message was clear: No fortress is untouchable. No regime is beyond reach.