In an in-depth report published by the prestigious British newspaper Financial Timeswho was able to contact two sources of intelligence aware of plans Of Washington And Tel Avivsome of the key factors that allowed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be killed – along with other leading figures of the government ofIran – in the’attack launched on Saturday 28 February 2026 by USA And Israel. As also indicated by the president of the United States Donald Trumpthe targets were hit in the morning, while they were having breakfast, in view of an important summit that was supposed to be held at the palace of Pasteur Streetrazed by 30 air-to-ground missiles unhook yourself hunting of the Israeli Air Force. The attack, as far as we know, was coming planned for some time, however the decision to act was only taken at the last minute, when the intelligence services had absolute certainty that Khamenei would be present at the meeting inside the building.
It took a long time to obtain this information, as the Financial Times reports years of workwith the involvement of several technologieshacking, artificial intelligencemathematical models (such as the so-called social network analysis which analyzes billions of data points) and evidently also moles in close contact with the government of Tehrangiven that we explicitly speak of a “human source” who was able to confirm the presence of the Ayatollah inside the bombed palace.
One of the salient elements of the report highlights that the Mossadthe very powerful Israeli intelligence agency operating abroad, had full control of most of the traffic cameras of Tehran. Simply put, they could “see” what was happening in the enemy capital, keeping an eye times And traveleven in sensitive places of institutional power. “We knew Tehran as we know Jerusalem. And when you know (a place) as well as you know the street you grew up on, you notice only one thing out of place“, one of the intelligence officials contacted by the newspaper told the Financial Time. A camera aimed at the parking where the bodyguards left their cars. By combining the enormous amount of data with sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms, the services have managed to achieve addresses, service hours, travel, habitual routeswho protected whom (and when) and other important information to plan a “surgical” attack like the one on February 28th.
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But how did the Mossad gain control of Tehran’s traffic cameras? Fanpage.it he asked a IT security expertwho wished to remain anonymous. First of all, he confirmed to us that this is a very feasible process: “You could infect the devices directly – difficult but doable – or the system that controls them, easier.” This is possible with countless types of malware (contraction of malicious software), that is virus and other similar software. “If you need to infect the cameras you can act on the wifi network – if they are wifi – or the network modules that keep them connected. Often, but not always, you may be forced to physically operate the device with external hardware. So it is usually easier to infect the system that manages them. What vulnerabilities could this system have? Thousands”, explains the expert, adding not to neglect the social engineering “given that the preparation took years and is well suited“. Thesocial engineering it is a technique of psychological manipulation designed to push affected people to provide data, grant access to confidential systems, open infected attachments and more generally carry out actions that result in the collection of information. In this case the targets may have been the workers who managed Tehran’s cameras.
But the Israeli intelligence services did not limit themselves to collecting this data. At the moment of launching the deadly attack, he recounts the reconstruction provided by the Financial Times, in collaboration with US intelligence (the CIA) they unleashed a powerful cyber attack that made the. blind radar systems from the air defenseso it was impossible to see and intercept the missiles dropped from planes. Furthermore, control was taken of repeaters mobile signal in the Pasteur Street area, where the razed building was located. They made sure that anyone who made a call to the cell phones in the area would find it busy, making it impossible communications and therefore the arrival of potential warning messages.
It is interesting to note that, according to the Israeli military doctrinefor high profile targets – like Khamenei – it is necessary that the confirmation of the presence in the place to be struck comes from two senior officers who work independently. In addition to the data on cameras, phones and other devices hacked by Israeli intelligence, according to the two officials interviewed by the Financial Times there was another factor that confirmed the Ayatollah’s meeting with other leading figures: a human source. This suggests that there was at least one mole in his entourage of Khamenei, who was able to communicate with absolute certainty the presence of the target, thus giving the green light to the attack that triggered the war. In light of such an intelligence network, whose technological and operational capabilities are notoriously the best in the world, many wonder how the bloody attack on Hamas of 7 October 2023.
