Iran ‘arrests dozens of Israeli spies'
Tehran, facing its worst security breach since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, reportedly detained 14 individuals in southern Iran on Saturday for their alleged ties to Israel and involvement in 'terror attacks'.
Two alleged Mossad agents were also arrested in the Tehran province in separate operations, according to Iran's state media. They were allegedly found with 200kg of explosives and equipment for 32 drones and launchers.
Iranian authorities said they were part of a wider plot by Israel's intelligence agency to create unrest within Iran.
Iranian police said two more men, believed to be linked to Mossad, were also arrested in Alborz province to the west of Tehran. The suspects were allegedly operating from a safe house where they were building bombs and booby traps.
Five people were also arrested for allegedly coordinating with Israeli entities in the Yazd province in central Iran over the weekend.
The wave of arrests comes as Israel ordered an evacuation for parts of Tehran ahead of an expected escalation in its aerial campaign against the Iranian capital.
Israeli leaders had warned that Tehran's residents would 'pay the price' for the third night of missile strikes on Israeli cities, which have so far killed at least 24 people and wounded more than 500.
In Israel's strikes on nuclear sites and military personnel on Friday, Mossad agents launched drone attacks from within Iran, disabling anti-aircraft weapons and assassinating much of the top Iranian military command.
The agents had sneaked into the country and set up a factory to build the explosive drones used to cripple Tehran's air defences ahead of Friday's strikes, intelligence officials said.
The operation, in which vehicles carrying weapons systems were also smuggled into Iran, would have been years in the making, a security official told The Times of Israel.
By destroying Iran's key air defences, the drones gave Israeli planes the freedom to carry out Friday's strikes, which killed several top generals and hit about 100 targets including nuclear and military facilities.
Since then, alleged Israeli agents have been continuing to attempt 'acts of sabotage' around the country, using small drones carrying explosives, according to Iranian state media.
Iran executed a man accused of spying for Mossad, state media said. Ten months ago, the notoriously sophisticated intelligence agency effectively crippled Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organisation, in Lebanon with its use of explosive walkie-talkies.
It comes as the Israeli military said that, after a wave of strikes on Monday, its forces had destroyed one third of Iran's surface-to-surface missile launchers.
Israel said it had hit command centres belonging to the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Tehran early on Monday.
In response, Iran has been frantically signalling that it wants to end its escalating conflict with Israel and resume nuclear talks, according to officials.
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Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
'Not in our name': Israelis protest against Gaza war - but Netanyahu seems unmoved
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Ex-Israeli intelligence chief said 50 Palestinians must die for every 7 October victim
The Israeli general who headed military intelligence on 7 October 2023 has said 50 Palestinians must die for every person killed that day and 'it does not matter now if they are children', in recordings broadcast by Israel's Channel 12 TV station. Aharon Haliva said the toll in Gaza, which he put at more than 50,000 dead, was 'necessary' as a 'message to future generations' of Palestinians. 'They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price,' he added, referring to the mass expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands after the creation of Israel in 1948. Nakba means catastrophe in Arabic. Much of Israel's leadership and media has used genocidal rhetoric about Palestinians since Hamas's 7 October attacks, including describing them as 'human animals', saying there are 'no innocents' in Gaza and calling for Gaza's total destruction and its ethnic cleansing. However, Haliva's description of a campaign of mass killing including children was an unusually direct description of collective punishment of civilians, which is illegal under international law. Haliva, who stepped down from his position in April 2024, also appeared to endorse the casualty figures compiled by health authorities in Gaza, which Israeli officials regularly attack as propaganda. They have proved reliable in past conflicts. Channel 12 said the undated conversations were recorded 'in recent months'. The Gaza health ministry's toll for those killed by Israeli attacks passed 50,000 in March and has recently climbed above 60,000. Israel's most recent published data on the war put the number of militants killed at about 20,000, so Haliva would have been aware that even by his country's own count most of the Palestinians killed were civilians. 'The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations,' he said in the broadcast comments. 'For everything that happened on October 7th, for every person on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die. It doesn't matter now if they are children.' About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led cross-border attacks, the majority of them civilians, and 250 were taken hostage to Gaza. Channel 12 did not clarify how it had obtained the recordings or who Haliva was speaking with. Israel's Haaretz newspaper described the recordings as a format that allowed the retired officer to 'give an interview … without actually being interviewed'. Haliva's comments about mass killings of Palestinian civilians did not make headlines in other mainstream Israeli outlets. They focused instead on his criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu and warnings of systemic failures in security and intelligence. That coverage highlighted the vast gulf between how the war is perceived and discussed inside Israel's borders and beyond them. Among Israelis, Haliva is widely seen as a centrist critic of the current government and its far-right ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, as the general himself noted in the broadcast comments. He quoted an internal critic at the intelligence directorate telling him it was 'lucky' that many of those killed and kidnapped on 7 October 2023 were leftwing Israelis linked to peace movements. 'He told me: 'If this had happened to us, the right, you wouldn't have gone to war like this,'' Haliva said. 'That's what people believe here.' Quique Kierszenbaum contributed to this report
BreakingNews.ie
2 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Israel's growing frustration over war in Gaza erupts in nationwide protests
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Advertisement 'The only way to bring (hostages) back is through a deal, all at once, without games,' former hostage Arbel Yehoud said at a demonstration in Tel Aviv. Her boyfriend Ariel Cunio is still held by Hamas. Demonstrators block a road during a protest near Jerusalem (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP) One protester carried a photo of an emaciated Palestinian child from Gaza. Such images were once rare at Israeli demonstrations but now appear more often as outrage grows over conditions for Palestinian civilians after more than 250 malnutrition-related deaths. An end to the war does not seem near. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is balancing competing pressures including the potential for mutiny within his coalition. 'Those who today call for an end to the war without defeating Hamas are not only hardening Hamas's position and delaying the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of October 7 will be repeated,' Mr Netanyahu said, referencing the Hamas-led attack in 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and sparked the war. Advertisement The last time Israel agreed to a ceasefire that released hostages earlier this year, far-right members of his cabinet threatened to topple Mr Netanyahu's government. Frustration is growing in Israel over plans for a new military offensive in some of Gaza's most populated areas (Mahmoud Illean/AP) Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called the demonstrations on Sunday 'a bad and harmful campaign that plays into Hamas's hands, buries the hostages in the tunnels and attempts to get Israel to surrender to its enemies and jeopardise its security and future'. 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The Houthi-run Al-Masirah Television said the strikes targeted a power plant in the southern district of Sanhan, sparking a fire and knocking it out of service. Israel's military said the strikes were launched in response to missiles and drones aimed at Israel.
