Iran ‘obtains vast quantity' of secret Israeli military plans
Iran has acquired thousands of secret Israeli nuclear and defence documents, according to its state TV broadcaster.
An IRIB report on Saturday claimed: 'Iran's intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime'.
It said a mission to obtain the material - including documents, images and videos - was carried out 'a while ago'.
Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence analyst, told The Telegraph: 'I don't believe this latest information was gathered by Israelis, I think it's been stolen by hacking, more likely by a big group like Anonymous for Justice.'
Mr Solomon said he suspected the operation took place last year. 'Usually when someone steals something like this and sells it on the dark network, it takes time for someone to buy it as the price negotiation and authentication takes time,' he added.
A Microsoft report last year said Israel had become the top target of state-backed Iranian cyberattacks, overtaking the US.
Israel has not commented on the claims. 'We don't know if it's information which is scientific or operational, and it could maybe be something like details of the supply chain, but it could also be a psychological operation,' Mr Solomon said.
Dozens of Israeli citizens have been arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran, with Tehran launching an unprecedented wave of operations aimed at intelligence gathering and assassinating the Jewish state's top political and military figures.
Last month, two Israeli men were arrested on suspicion of spying in the home town of Israel Katz, the defence minister.
Mr Katz said he believed the men had been involved in 'an Iranian plot to harm me as defence minister of the State of Israel'.
Sites such as the operating rooms of Israel's Iron Dome air defence system and the secretive nuclear site in Dimona, have been at the centre of Iran's secret operations.
Oded Ailam, the former head of Mossad's counter-terrorism unit, said Iran has discarded the slow, resource-heavy methods of classical espionage, in which individual insiders are recruited over a long period of time.
He said Iran had instead turned to aggressive mass campaigns on social media, with thousands of Israelis approached in one fell swoop.
'Messages like 'Want to earn some easy cash?' now pepper the digital landscape. No serious screening or background checks, just a Telegram or email message offering money for a 'simple task'. Track a senior figure. Snap a photo of a base. Willing to try? You're in,' he explained.
'This is Iran's version of digital marketing applied to espionage: blanket targeting, no filters. And like any marketing effort, only a tiny fraction need to respond for the campaign to succeed. To Tehran, even a one per cent success rate from a thousand messages is worth it. It's a chillingly rational approach: volume will eventually produce the quality they seek. And sadly, it works.'
In April, Israeli Moti Maman, 73, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having contacts with Iranian intelligence and travelling twice to Iran while Israel was fighting Tehran's proxies in Gaza and across the region. He is appealing the sentence, but many in Israel have called for an even harsher punishment.
Since the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza, Israel has been under fire from Iran's proxies in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and the occupied West Bank.
Last month, CNN reported that, according to US intelligence chiefs, Israel was weighing an attack on Iran's nuclear sites. It came as US and Iran talks over Tehran's nuclear programme stalled over the issue of uranium enrichment.
The US wants Iran to halt all enrichment as the UN's nuclear watchdog says Tehran has enough to make multiple warheads, while Iran says its programme is for civilian uses only and exerts its right to enrich, despite having broken international regulations in doing so.
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