Israel had reportedly spent years closely monitoring the movements of senior Iranian officials in Tehran before the airstrike in which Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed.
According to a report by the Financial Times, citing sources familiar with the operation, nearly all traffic cameras in the Iranian capital had allegedly been hacked for years. Encrypted footage was reportedly transferred to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel. One source claimed a particular camera angle was especially useful for identifying where bodyguards typically parked their vehicles.
Long-Term Intelligence Gathering
Sources cited in the report say Israeli intelligence had real-time access to:
- Addresses and duty schedules of bodyguards
- Routes used by security details
- Individuals accompanying senior officials
This multi-year intelligence effort is said to have paved the way for the strike. However, it was not the only source of information. The report notes that Israel, alongside the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), allegedly used additional methods to pinpoint the moment when the 86-year-old leader would be in his office near Pasteur Street in Tehran.
Among the methods reportedly used:
- Interference with data from 12 telecommunications towers in the area
- Creating signal congestion to prevent warning alerts from reaching security personnel
An Israeli intelligence official was quoted as saying:
“Before the bombs fell, we knew Tehran the way we know Jerusalem.”
Role of Unit 8200 and Advanced Data Analysis
The report states that the operation relied heavily on Israel’s signals intelligence Unit 8200, Mossad intelligence networks, and advanced data analytics. Israeli analysts allegedly applied mathematical models, including social network analysis, to process billions of data points and identify decision-making hubs and potential targets.
Israeli intelligence superiority had reportedly been demonstrated earlier during a 12-day conflict the previous June, when several Iranian nuclear scientists and senior military officials were killed in initial strikes. At that time, Iran’s air defenses were neutralized through a combination of:
- Cyber operations
- Drone deployments
- Precision-guided munitions, including long-range “Sparrow” missiles capable of striking small targets from over 1,000 kilometers away
Political Dimension
The Financial Times report emphasizes that not all details of the operation have been disclosed, in order to protect intelligence sources and methods.
However, it underlines that the decision to eliminate Khamenei was, above all, a political decision.
U.S. intelligence sources reportedly indicated that a human intelligence source played a crucial role in the mission’s success by providing critical information about the timing and location of the meeting, enabling the strike to be carried out with precision.
