Israel was able to target a top-secret meeting of Iranian officials during the war with the Islamic Republic by hacking their security guards’ phones, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
A group of officials on Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, met in a bunker 30 meters below a mountain west of Tehran. Though they were instructed not to bring their cell phones with them out of concern that Israel would target the meeting, the IDF later dropped six bombs targeting the entrance and exit doors.
None of the officials were harmed, but they walked out of the bunker to find the bodies of the guards.
The NYT reported that Israeli intelligence had used Iranian security guards’ use of mobile phones, including posts made during meetings, to hunt Iranian officials.
This latest escalation in the spy games between Israel and Iran sent Tehran into a tailspin.
Tehran in a tailspin
“We know senior officials and commanders did not carry phones, but their interlocutors, security guards, and drivers had phones, they did not take precautions seriously and this is how most of them were traced,” said Sasan Karimi, the former deputy vice president for strategy in the Iranian government and current lecturer at Tehran University.
The NYT cited five senior Iranian officials, two members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and nine Israeli military and intelligence officials.
According to Iranian officials, hacking guards’ phones is just one element of Israel’s long-running, successful espionage campaign.