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.

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.

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.