Israeli reports revealed unprecedented details about secret operations carried out inside Iran and Lebanon under the supervision of the Mossad, including recruiting and training Iranian citizens inside Israel, and plans to target sensitive installations in Iran, leading to a project to overthrow the regime in Tehran, with the head of the agency, David Barnea, about to leave his position after 5 years full of operations and organizational transformations.
According to an extensive report by journalist Ron Ben Yishai, the people who appeared on Israeli television on June 13, 2025, during the showing of scenes from the opening strike of Operation “Lion’s Cub,” were not members of the “Mossad” as initially thought, but rather Iranian citizens who were recruited by the agency and trained in Israel before returning them to Iran to await the implementation of the tasks assigned to them.
The report indicates that in the spring of 2025, as part of the preparations for the operation, it was decided that one of these teams would disable an Iranian air defense system with the aim of ensuring freedom of action for Israeli aviation over Tehran. The group leader later received an encrypted message indicating the approaching date of the mission, without being informed in advance of the target or location of implementation for security reasons.
During that period, special equipment was sent to them through secret routes, which included weapons, missiles, drones, and explosive warheads that were dismantled into small parts and hidden inside items that did not arouse suspicion, while the group’s members had received training to assemble them while they were in Israel.
The report confirms that these teams were not the only ones that worked inside Iran that night, as other groups participated in various missions, including supporting operations targeting the leadership of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force, and others that worked to disable parts of the air defense systems and ballistic missiles in the Tehran region and western Iran.
Timing coordination between the operations of agents on the ground and the flight paths of Israeli warplanes was a key factor in the success of the operation, despite some malfunctions, according to what the report quoted a former Mossad official.
The report states that Mossad chief David Barnea followed the course of the operation from the operations room at the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, and that he seemed nervous at first before signs of the operation’s success appeared.
The report believes that the success of these operations constituted practical proof of the vision led by Barnea since he assumed the presidency of the agency in 2021, which was based on expanding reliance on local non-Israeli agents instead of Israeli elements working directly in the field.
He explains that the Mossad activated for the first time during the war a secret combat arm consisting of non-Israeli agents who carried out intelligence and field operations in coordination with the Israeli army, with an effect that the report described as strategic.
The report dwells at length on the organizational changes that Barnea made within the agency, where he restructured the agents’ operating units, expanded recruitment operations via the Internet and social media, and created new wings for special operations, psychological and technological influence.
Some former employees of the agency describe these changes as a “biometric revolution,” as the Mossad moved from relying extensively on Israeli elements operating under false identities to employing fighters and agents from residents of the targeted countries.
The report also addresses the “bomb bomb” operation that targeted Hezbollah members in September 2024, noting that it was managed by one of the new operational wings founded by Barnea.
Regarding the Iranian nuclear file, the report reveals that the head of the Mossad was convinced for years that the Israeli army did not have the ability to destroy the Fordow nuclear facility fortified under the mountains through air strikes alone, so he worked to develop a plan that relied on teams of combat agents to carry out a sudden ground attack inside Iran in coordination with the Israeli army.
According to the report, work on the plan continued for two years, but former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant doubted the possibility of its implementation, and multiple professional committees expressed reservations about it, before the outbreak of the “Iron Swords” war after October 7 led to the entire project being frozen.
The freeze decision led to a sharp dispute between Barnea and former Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy, as the latter accused the Mossad chief of not informing the army to stop preparations despite investing billions of shekels in the project.
The report also reveals other differences between Barnea and Halevy regarding the management of the confrontation with Hezbollah, as the head of the Mossad called for adopting a more severe offensive approach in Lebanon, and repeatedly called for striking Hezbollah targets in response to its operations.
In August 2024, Barnea proposed to Netanyahu that the main military effort be transferred from Gaza to the Lebanese arena. He also supported the activation of Operation “Pigerat” as soon as the danger of its exposure emerged, while Halevy preferred to integrate it within a broader military operation.
The report also addressed the assassination of the former Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, noting that the Mossad pushed for its implementation and that Lebanese agents planted devices that helped improve the accuracy of Israeli air strikes, which later caused disagreements between the agency and the Israeli army over who deserves credit for the operation.
In another context, the report highlights the establishment of an “Influence Department” within the Mossad in late 2021, with the aim of working to overthrow the Iranian regime and replace it with a pro-Western regime.
According to the report, during a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, Barnea presented a plan that included moving armed Kurdish groups from Iraq towards the Kurdish regions in Iran to ignite a widespread uprising against the regime, but the plan was not implemented after information about it leaked and reached Türkiye, which quickly intervened to thwart it.
The report indicates that officials within the Mossad still believe that the Iranian regime may face the risk of collapse within a period ranging from one to three years if the current sanctions and pressures continue and a new agreement is not reached between Washington and Tehran.
As the end of Barnea’s term approaches, the report paints a picture of the head of an intelligence service who tried to transform the Mossad from a traditional secret operations agency into a multi-armed offensive tool, extending from Iran to Lebanon, at a time when the results of this strategy are still a matter of controversy within the Israeli security establishment itself.
