Before the bombs hit Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's compound on Saturday, Israel disrupted single components of roughly a dozen mobile phone towers near Pasteur Street in Tehran. The interference made phones in the area appear busy when called, effectively cutting Khamenei's protection detail off from receiving possible warnings, the Financial Times reported.
As "Hvylya" notes, this was just one element in a multi-layered intelligence operation. Israel had deeply penetrated Tehran's mobile phone networks, which - combined with years of hacked traffic camera feeds - gave its intelligence agencies a near-complete real-time picture of movements around the supreme leader's offices.
The cell tower disruption echoed tactics Israel had used before. During the 12-day war in June 2025, Israel disabled Iran's aerial defenses through a combination of cyber attacks, low-range drones and precise munitions that destroyed the radars of Russian-built missile launchers. "We took their eyes first," one intelligence official said at the time. In this latest operation, Israel took their communications first.
The technological sophistication of the operation reflected decades of investment. Israel's Unit 8200, its premier signals intelligence outfit, had built capabilities that allowed real-time monitoring of Tehran's infrastructure. Tracking individual targets - once laborious work requiring visual confirmations - had been largely automated through algorithm-driven data collection in recent years.
The Israeli military said the decision to strike in the morning rather than at night contributed to tactical surprise. Iranian officials, despite heavy preparedness, apparently did not expect a daylight attack - and with their communications silently disrupted, had no way to relay last-minute warnings. As the FT noted, Israeli jets, already airborne for hours, fired precision munitions from more than 1,000 kilometers away.
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