Former Mossad Chief Says 2025 Iran Video Releases Were Meant to Provoke Arrests and Confuse IRGC

Former Mossad chief David Barnea said the Israeli intelligence agency published multiple videos in real time of its agents acting against Iran’s government in June 2025, in order to overwhelm and confuse Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to a report by The Jerusalem Post. Barnea made the remarks to a closed audience at the Priority Summit, and they were leaked on a Sunday, the Post reported. Middle East Eye, reporting in October 2025, said Barnea spoke at the summit on 22 October to a private audience, and that The Jerusalem Post reported the remarks on 25 October.

According to the Post’s account, the Mossad released video footage on June 13, 2025, showing its co-lead role with the Israeli air force in Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran’s ballistic missiles and air defenses. Three videos showed the Mossad targeting ballistic missile sites, air defense targets and general preparations, with the agents’ faces covered. Barnea said the videos were deliberately published to trigger mass arrests and to make it harder for the IRGC to identify actual Israeli agents.

Barnea also said the Mossad released an official video on the morning of Operation Rising Lion, which carried the Mossad logo, to protect the agents who were there. Middle East Eye reported that Israel launched Operation Rising Lion on 13 June 2025, bombing Iran and killing senior military commanders and scientists, and that after Iran retaliated with missile attacks on Israel, the 12-day war ended with a ceasefire. Middle East Eye also reported that the Mossad released videos on the first morning of the attacks showing what it said were its agents operating inside Iran, with the faces of those involved concealed.

Barnea said Iranian authorities arrested 21,000 people. The Jerusalem Post reported that he said the arrests took place on the second day of the fighting. Middle East Eye reported Barnea’s claim that many of those arrested, or executed on accusations of working for Israel, had no connection to the Mossad. Middle East Eye quoted Trita Parsi, executive vice-president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who called the remarks an admission that Israel used ordinary Iranians as tools to protect Mossad operatives. This characterization is Parsi’s view, not a finding of the reports.

Protecting people who have no part in a covert operation is a matter of basic justice, as the consequences described in these reports fell on ordinary Iranians (Proverbs 31:8-9). The Jerusalem Post reported that Barnea said Iran eventually released all of the detainees.