Barnea: Iran Hanged People Who Never Worked for Mossad

Some of the people Iran has hanged as "Mossad agents" never worked for Israel's intelligence agency, former Mossad chief David Barnea said Thursday. Speaking at the Priority Summit conference, he also revealed that the Mossad published its own footage on the first morning of Operation Rising Lion, Israel's June 2025 campaign against Iranian nuclear and military targets, so that Iran would make mass arrests and lose sight of Israel's real operatives.

"Some of the people being hanged in Iran on accusations of being Mossad agents, I have to ask who they are," Barnea said. "They tell me, 'Listen, we don't know either.'" He described them as "just unfortunate people whom they decided were our agents, but who never worked for the Mossad, and probably never worked for any other intelligence organization either."

Ynet reported that the video carried the Mossad's insignia and showed operatives on missions inside Iran. Barnea said the goal was to overwhelm Iran's security services with suspects.

"We wanted to make sure they arrested so many people in Iran that they wouldn't be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and would eventually release everyone. Incidentally, that is exactly what happened."

By his account, Iranian authorities detained 21,000 people on the second day of the fighting. "You have to imagine that when you arrest 21,000 people, even if you've caught an agent or two, eventually you have to release them because everyone's story will be the same," he said. The figures and the account of the releases could not be independently verified.

Mossad Director David Barnea (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Barnea claimed that 99.9% of Mossad agents were never exposed. He said operatives who took part in the campaign still live in Tehran, "still living their good lives, knowing in their hearts that they served a noble purpose, not for the State of Israel, but for themselves."

He also described the secrecy around the operation. Israeli Air Force pilots did not know they were going to attack when they were called to their squadrons. Dozens of Mossad operatives, however, had been sent into Iran weeks earlier, fully aware of their missions. "And they kept that secret entirely to themselves, in their hearts," Barnea said.

He said he personally approved every operative and met each one before giving clearance. "You have to sign off that this secret won't leak," he said. "When I say I sign off on each one, I'm staking my head on it."

Barnea also recounted the final minutes before the September 2024 operation in which thousands of pagers carried by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon exploded. At 3:20 p.m., ten minutes before the scheduled start, he sat in the underground command center with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff and the head of Military Intelligence. "The prime minister turns to me and says, 'Tell me, what happens if it doesn't work?'" Barnea recalled. He assured Netanyahu there was no such possibility, then spent "10 whole minutes of thinking, 'What a stupid thing I just said.'"

He said the pager operation went through hundreds of tests, including experiments on mannequins filled with materials simulating the human body. Barnea repeatedly ordered technicians to reduce the explosives in each device to limit harm to the families of Hezbollah operatives. He acknowledged that this made the devices less lethal. According to Barnea, about 4,500 Hezbollah operatives in Beirut's Dahiyeh neighborhood lost limbs. He said the operation struck the organization physically, damaged its morale and left lasting fear, which grew after the explosions of its communications devices the following day.

As JFeed reported in August, Barnea was honored at a farewell ceremony hosted by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion after he stepped down as Mossad director.