INTERNACIONAL
Inside Israel’s secret war in Iran: Mossad commandos, hidden drones and the strike that stunned Tehran
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Israel’s overnight strike on Iran was not only one of the most ambitious aerial campaigns in recent history, it was the result of years of covert planning, surveillance and infiltration by Israeli intelligence.
While dozens of fighter jets bombed nuclear and military targets across Iran early Friday morning, the groundwork had long been laid by Mossad agents working in lockstep with the Israeli military.
Code-named «Am Kelavi» (Rising Lion), the preemptive operation was the product of unprecedented coordination between the Israeli air force, the Military Intelligence Directorate, Mossad and the country’s defense industries. For years, they worked «shoulder to shoulder» to gather the intelligence files needed to eliminate Iran’s most sensitive military and nuclear assets.
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A senior Israeli security official told Fox News Digital, «The Mossad worked with a huge number of people—a mass of agents deep inside Iran, operating at the highest level of penetration imaginable. Some of these agents were retrained as commando fighters to carry out mission-critical operations.»
That work culminated in what the official described as a three-layered strike. «We eliminated vast areas of Iran’s surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missile infrastructure, a massive number of senior scientists, and large portions of their air defense systems.»
«We established a drone base inside Iran, and at zero hour, Mossad operatives retrieved them from hiding spots. We placed precision missiles on numerous vehicles and embedded additional missiles throughout the country, hidden inside rocks. We activated this entire array in precise coordination with the Israeli air force.»
Israeli jets launched simultaneous strikes on dozens of sites, including Iran’s primary uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Located 1,500 kilometers from Israeli territory, Natanz had long been a critical part of Iran’s nuclear program. Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, described it as an underground compound containing multi-level centrifuge halls and electrical infrastructure.
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«We inflicted significant damage on this site,» Defrin said. «This facility was used by the IRGC to advance Iran’s project for acquiring nuclear weapons.»
Avner Golov, vice president of the Mind Israel think tank, told Fox News Digital, «The biggest success was hitting the Natanz facility and neutralizing Iran’s first wave of retaliation—the automatic response.
Smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, on Friday, June 13, 2025. Israel attacked Iran’s capital early Friday with explosions booming across Tehran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
«We took out their opening move—the ballistic missiles that were meant to launch immediately, and the drones that were already on the way. The fact that scientists were eliminated—that’s the true achievement.»
However, far beyond the airstrikes, Israeli sources revealed that a massive intelligence and sabotage campaign was unfolding in parallel inside Iran. A former senior Israeli official told Fox News Digital, «There was activity inside Iran—an insane level of intelligence work.
«They located the entire command center of the Iranian Air Force. All the commanders were together, and they were taken out in real time.»
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People move past a large banner featuring portraits of slain leaders from Iran-aligned armed groups, including Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian Commander Qasem Soleimani, in central Tehran, Iran, on May 1, 2025. (Photo by MOHAMMADALI NAJIB/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the same official, Iran’s military had gathered its top air force brass in one facility as part of a publicized drill meant to project deterrence. Instead, it exposed them. «It was partly luck, but also planned—the ability to see them in real time and strike with precision,» he said. «It’s a reminder of what happened in Lebanon—taking out contaminated leadership with surgical intelligence.»
That operation in Lebanon, often referred to as the «pagers» operation, saw Israel infiltrate and sabotage Hezbollah’s command network using Chinese-made radios embedded with explosives. The current operation, Israeli experts say, was broader, deeper, and more strategically impactful.
«I think this is so much more substantial,» said Nadav Eyal, an Israeli journalist and analyst for «Yediot Ahronot» newspaper. «What was done here was much more than the James Bond kind of type of pagers operation. It’s more about the infrastructure, intelligence needed to read devastating strikes on military installations, and the ingenuity of its intelligence services—electronic surveillance, things that it’s been developing for many years now.»
The Mossad’s infiltration campaign involved the quiet smuggling of sophisticated weaponry into Iran, hidden inside vehicles and embedded near strategic targets. In central Iran, precision-guided weapons were planted near surface-to-air missile batteries and launched on command. Disguised vehicles were also used to destroy Iran’s air defense systems at the moment of the strike. Meanwhile, explosive drones positioned near Tehran were activated to destroy long-range missile launchers at the Esfajabad base.
All of it took place under the watch of Iranian intelligence and succeeded without detection.
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Israeli defense officials now say the mission represents one of the most successful intelligence-military integrations in the country’s history. If the Lebanon pagers stunned the world, the message from this strike is even clearer: nowhere is out of reach.
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Former Biden-era White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre abruptly left the Democratic Party in her rear-view mirror, announcing in June that she had become an Independent after spending more than two years as President Joe Biden’s top spokesperson and defender.
«Our country has become obsessed with blind loyalty to a two-party democratic system. In her new book, timed for publication just one year after the 2024 election, Karine Jean-Pierre shares why Americans must begin to look beyond party lines and why she chose to embrace life as an Independent,» a press release announcing Jean-Pierre’s upcoming book, «Independent,» stated while revealing that the former spox had ditched the Democratic Party.
«Jean-Pierre didn’t come to her decision to be an Independent lightly, she has served two American presidents, Obama and Biden. . . . She takes us through the three weeks that led to Biden’s abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision,» the press release continued.
Fox News Digital took a look back at Jean-Pierre’s history as press secretary – which spanned from May 13, 2022, until January 20, 2025 – including the most partisan stances and statements she made in defense of the administration as the immigration crisis spiraled to new highs, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the administration embraced transgender issues, and the White House’s heated rhetoric aimed at President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election.
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Former President Joe Biden, accompanied by former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre before she left the Democratic Party. ( (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images))
«We are not finishing a wall. We are cleaning up the mess that the prior administration made. We are trying to save lives. This is what the prior administration left behind that we are now cleaning up,» Jean-Pierre declared from the White House briefing room’s podium in July of 2022, as the Biden administration said it would not continue work on the Trump administration’s border wall.
«A border wall is an ineffective use of taxpayer dollars, so it’s ineffective,» she added.
Months later, as Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants who came to the U.S.-Mexico border because of health concerns was set to expire, Jean-Pierre argued, «It would be wrong to think that the border is open. It is not open.»
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Migrants attempting to cross in to the U.S. from Mexico are detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the border on August 20, 2022, in San Luis, Arizona. (Nick Ut/Getty Images)
Critics at the time slammed the press secretary over the comment, calling the comment a «bold-faced lie» as migrants were seen coming across the border with little consequences.
The Biden administration was in power when the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision effectively ending the recognition of abortion as a constitutional right in the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in June of 2022, with Jean-Pierre calling the ruling «extreme.»
«When the Supreme Court made that extreme decision on Dobbs, it really put a lot of families and women’s lives at risk,» she said during a press conference in July of 2022.
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The Biden White House frequently celebrated LGBTQ holidays during its four years, including fiercely defending transgender issues and policies that the Trump administration has since ended.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
«Tomorrow is Trans Visibility Day,» Jean-Pierre said during a March 2023 press conference slamming Republicans who put forth legislation that aimed to keep biological boys out of girls’ sports and end transgender surgeries for minors. «On a day that we should be lifting up our trans kids and our trans youth and making sure that they feel seen, we’re seen more and more of these hateful, hateful bills.»
«We’ve been very clear about these anti-LGBTQ bills that we’re seeing in state legislatures across the country, in particular these anti-trans bills, as they attack trans kids, as they attack trans parents. It is shameful, and it is unacceptable,» she added.
In the months leading up to Election Day, Trump faced two separate assassination attempts, including one in Butler, Pennsylvania, during a campaign rally in July that left him with an injury to the side of his head after a bullet whizzed towards him, and another in September when a man attempted to kill Trump while he played golf in Florida.
President Trump survived an assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania in July. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
«It’s been only two days since somebody allegedly tried to kill Donald Trump again, and you’re here at the podium in the White House briefing room calling him a threat,» Fox News’ Peter Doocy pressed during a news conference in September of 2024. «How many more assassination attempts on Donald Trump until the president and the vice president and you pick a different word to describe Trump other than ‘threat’?»
Then-Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden had both repeatedly claimed that «Democracy is on the ballot» last year amid Trump’s re-election campaign. While the White House, Biden and Harris additionally described Trump as a «threat» to democracy, Fox Digital previously extensively reported.
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President Joe Biden speaks at an event just days before his administration ended. (AP/Susan Walsh)
Jean-Pierre exhaled in a sign of disapproval before answering: «Peter, if anything, from this administration, I actually completely disagree with the premise of your question, the question that you’re asking. It is also incredibly dangerous in the way that you are asking it, because American people are watching. And to say that, when you start bringing political rhetoric. . . . That is not okay.»
«There are people watching at home who might miss the part where you say, let’s lower the temperature. And there are mentally unstable people who are attempting to kill political candidates, attempting to kill Donald Trump. And they are still hearing this White House refer to him as a threat. Is there no concern?» Doocy continued in the press conference.
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«We’re using examples. We’re not just saying that just to say it,» Jean-Pierre responded.
INTERNACIONAL
Guerra en Oriente Medio: Israel e Irán intercambian ataques por tercer día y ya hay más de 400 muertos
Reacciones
Edificios dañados durante ataques aéreos israelíes, en Teherán, Irán. Foto Xinhua
Un grupo de personas inspeccionan un edificio destruido por un misil lanzado desde Irán, cerca de Tel Aviv, Israel. Foto APIrán,Israel
INTERNACIONAL
Israel atacó el aeropuerto iraní de Mashhad en la operación de mayor alcance desde el inicio de la ofensiva
El Ejército israelí anunció este domingo que su fuerza aérea atacó un avión iraní de reabastecimiento aéreo en el aeropuerto de Mashhad, en el este de Irán, en lo que describió como su operación de mayor alcance desde que comenzó su ofensiva militar contra la república islámica.
El ataque se produjo a 2.300 kilómetros de Israel, según informó el ejército israelí en un comunicado, convirtiendo esta operación en la de mayor distancia realizada por las fuerzas israelíes desde que iniciaron los bombardeos en la madrugada del viernes.
“Las Fuerzas Aéreas de Israel están operando para establecer la superioridad aérea sobre el espacio aéreo iraní”, indicó la nota militar.
La ofensiva israelí contra Irán comenzó en respuesta a lo que Tel Aviv señala como los avances en el programa nuclear iraní y la amenaza que representa la fabricación de misiles balísticos de la república islámica. Desde el viernes, la aviación israelí ha atacado infraestructuras militares, incluyendo sistemas de defensa aérea y almacenes de misiles balísticos, así como plantas nucleares como las de Natanz e Isfahán.
Los ataques también han tenido como objetivo altos cargos de la Guardia Revolucionaria iraní y científicos nucleares. Según datos no confirmados oficialmente, los bombardeos han causado más de 180 muertos en todo Irán, mientras que las autoridades han confirmado la muerte de al menos 15 altos cargos de las Fuerzas Armadas y nueve científicos nucleares.
En paralelo al ataque al aeropuerto de Mashhad, la capital iraní, Teherán, sufrió este domingo una nueva oleada de ataques israelíes. Según la agencia estatal IRNA, cinco coches bomba explotaron en la ciudad después de que los sistemas de defensa antiaérea repelieran bombardeos israelíes.
Los ataques en Teherán alcanzaron el cuartel de Comando de la Policía capitalina y varias zonas residenciales. Medios iraníes reportaron explosiones en las zonas de Shahrak Gharb, Saadat Abad y Punak en el oeste de la capital, Niavaran en el norte y la popular calle Valiars que atraviesa la ciudad.
La agencia Tasnim informó que el Cuartel General de la Policía de Teherán fue alcanzado por un dron, provocando “daños menores” en el edificio e hiriendo a “varios agentes”. También se reportó un ataque contra un edificio residencial en la zona de Shahid Chamran donde murió un número indeterminado de personas.
El Ministerio de Salud iraní afirmó que la mayoría de los muertos y heridos son civiles, especialmente mujeres y niños, en ataques a zonas residenciales, aunque no ofreció datos concretos. Como medida de precaución, el gobierno anunció que mantendrá abiertas todo el día las estaciones de metro de la capital para que sirvan como refugios antiaéreos.
Por su parte, Israel también ha sufrido las consecuencias del intercambio de hostilidades. Los lanzamientos de misiles iraníes, que hasta el momento suman siete oleadas, han causado catorce muertos según el servicio de emergencias nacional Magen David Adom. Medios israelíes confirmaron ataques en Bat Yam, al sur de Tel Aviv, y en Sefelá, al oeste de Jerusalén, que causaron la muerte de ocho personas y heridas a 150.
En medio de esta escalada, el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump expresó optimismo sobre una resolución pacífica del conflicto. “Pronto habrá paz entre Israel e Irán”, escribió Trump en su red Truth Social, asegurando que “muchas llamadas y reuniones están teniendo lugar ahora”.
Sin embargo, las tensiones diplomáticas persisten. El ministro iraní de Exteriores, Abás Araqchí, afirmó tener “pruebas sólidas” de que fuerzas estadounidenses apoyaron a Israel en su ofensiva militar. Estas acusaciones han complicado las negociaciones sobre el programa nuclear iraní que comenzaron el 12 de abril entre Teherán y Washington, con Irán rechazando participar en una reunión programada para este domingo debido a los ataques israelíes.
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