The Financial Times newspaper revealed details that it said were a long-term Israeli intelligence operation that paved the way for an air strike that targeted a site near Pasteur Street in Tehran on Saturday, and resulted, according to the report, in the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
According to sources quoted by the newspaper, the operation relied on a widespread penetration of traffic surveillance cameras in the Iranian capital years ago, where the images were encrypted and transferred to servers inside Israel.
One of the cameras provided a precise viewing angle of a heavily guarded security complex, allowing the movements of guards and drivers charged with protecting senior officials to be monitored. Using advanced algorithms, detailed data was collected about members of the security teams, including their addresses, daily routes, and working hours, within the framework of what is known in intelligence as “lifestyle analysis.”
Israel also used the “social network analysis” method to comb through billions of data points and identify decision-making centers and influential relationships. According to the report, the plan included disabling components in a number of communications towers near the targeted site, to prevent warnings from reaching the protection team.
The newspaper quoted an Israeli official as saying that this level of knowledge of Tehran allowed monitoring any unusual change, which contributed to the implementation of the operation with high accuracy.
