Israeli intelligence conducted deep penetrations into Iran during the 12-day war, recruiting Iranian citizens and neighbors and inserting operatives to gather intelligence on nuclear facilities, scientists, and officials. Those operations enabled covert actions, including building remotely controlled missile and drone systems inside central Iran that struck targets at the war's outset. Recruited Iranians helped smuggle modified vehicles used to neutralize air defenses and permit Israeli aircraft access to Iranian airspace. Iran responded with mass arrests and accusations against suspected collaborators, and has increased efforts to recruit agents inside Israel, though on a smaller scale dating back to at least 2013.
Israel's intelligence penetration of Iran played out in dramatic form over the course of the 12-day war this summer, but Iran is running an aggressive recruitment and spying operation of its own targeting Israel. And while the two espionage campaigns are not comparable in scale, scope, or success, Israel's domestic security agency was sufficiently concerned that in the wake of the war it partnered with the country's national public diplomacy directorate to a media campaign warning Israelis against spying for Iran.
Over the course of the war, Israeli intelligence treated Iran like its backyard playground, recruiting sources, both Iranian citizens and citizens of neighboring countries, and inserting its operatives to gather intelligence on the country's most secret nuclear facilities, scientists, and officials. These efforts enabled covert operations, including the construction of remotely controlled missile and drone systems inside central Iran, that struck Iranian targets from within at the very outset of the 12-day war.
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