Israel Used Hacked Tehran Cameras to Track Khamenei Before Strike: Report
Israel spent years hacking Tehran’s traffic camera systems and gaining access to mobile phone networks to monitor the movements of Khamenei and his security detail
Tehran: A report by the London-based Financial Times has revealed what it describes as a long-term plan by Israel’s intelligence agencies that led to the targeted killing of Iran’s former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with members of the country’s top military leadership.
According to the Financial Times, which cited multiple sources, Israel spent years hacking Tehran’s traffic camera systems and gaining access to mobile phone networks to monitor the movements of Khamenei and his security detail. Nearly all traffic cameras in Tehran were reportedly compromised, with footage encrypted and transmitted to external servers.
The alleged breach enabled Israeli and American forces to pinpoint Khamenei’s location, ultimately leading to his elimination in a targeted strike.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the strikes on Iran in an interview with Fox News, stating that the Iranian regime was committed to destroying the United States.
“Iran for 47 years has been chanting death to America. They bombed your embassies. They tried to assassinate Donald Trump, the President of the United States, twice. They murdered their own people, they massacred so many. And they spread a worldwide web of terror. This is a regime committed to destroying the United States of America,” Netanyahu said.
US Vice President JD Vance also told Fox News that President Donald Trump was determined to ensure Iran could never acquire a nuclear weapon.
“What the president determined is he didn't want to just keep the country safe from an Iranian nuclear weapon for the first three, four years of his second term. He wanted to make sure that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon, and that would require fundamentally a change in mindset from the Iranian regime,” Vance said.
He added that Trump believed Iran was nearing the threshold of developing a nuclear weapon and decided to take action to protect US national security.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the current wave of retaliation from Iran demonstrated what Tehran could have been capable of in the future had the strike not been carried out.
“This operation needed to happen because Iran, in about a year, would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it. Look at the damage they're doing now, and this is a weakened Iran. Imagine a year from now. The bottom line is no matter who governs that country a year from now, they're not going to have these ballistic missiles and they're not going to have these drones to threaten us. That's the objective of this mission,” Rubio said at a news conference.
His remarks drew a sharp response from Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi.
“Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: U.S. has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian ‘threat’. Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters. American people deserve better and should take back their country,” Araghchi posted on X.
The conflict in West Asia continues to intensify, with Iranian leadership targeting Gulf states and American assets in the region. The United States, meanwhile, has indicated that further military action may follow, stating that the most forceful strikes by US armed forces are yet to come.