Israel intentionally released footage of Mossad operatives in Iran to provoke mass arrests, ex-chief says

Former Mossad chief David Barnea has revealed that Israel intentionally released footage of their operatives in Iran during the June 2025 conflict as a deliberate strategy to provoke mass arrests. According to Barnea, the intention was to make it difficult for Iranian forces to identify genuine Israeli agents among the detained individuals.

In a statement reported by The Jerusalem Post on October 25, Barnea explained that the release of an official video featuring the Mossad logo on the morning of Operation Rising Lion served dual purposes: protecting the operatives and overwhelming Iranian counterintelligence. He emphasized that the aim was to ensure that Iranian authorities made so many mass arrests that they would be unable to differentiate between operatives and ordinary citizens, ultimately leading to the release of everyone detained. Barnea noted that Iranian authorities had arrested a total of 21,000 people during the operation.