- Israel launched over 100 air and drone strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites on June 13
- This strike wasn't born in a war room the night before. Its seeds were planted years earlier
- In 2018, Mossad stole 50,000 pages of Iran’s nuclear archive from a Tehran warehouse
In the early hours of June 13, Israel initiated what it called a "necessary preemptive action" against Iran. Over 100 air and drone strikes pounded key nuclear, military, and intelligence sites across the Islamic Republic. The target list read like a blueprint of Iran's national defence: nuclear enrichment plants, Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters, missile stockpiles, and covert sites.
At least 224 Iranians were confirmed dead. Several Iranian nuclear and missile facilities were reduced to rubble. The covert component, reportedly orchestrated by Mossad, involved high-precision drone strikes deep inside Iran's territory.
Israel claimed it had no choice.
But this strike wasn't born in a war room the night before. Its seeds were planted years earlier.
When Mossad Stole Iran's Nuclear Archive
On the night of January 31, 2018, a small team of Israeli Mossad agents infiltrated a nondescript warehouse in southern Tehran. They had 6 hours and 29 minutes, a window before the morning guard shift arrived that was carefully calculated after a year of surveillance.
They stole 50,000 pages and 163 CDs containing blueprints, technical diagrams, photographs, memos, and plans, all related to Iran's long-denied nuclear weapons programme.
The agents, using torches that could melt through 32 safes, prioritised binders marked with bomb designs and warhead development. Some safes were left unopened. The material weighed half a tonne (500 kg).
Planning was methodical. Guard routines were mapped. Alarm systems were studied and neutralised without detection. They identified the safes with "the good stuff." A senior Israeli intelligence official later described the mission as feeling like a scene from George Clooney's 'Ocean's 11'.
The theft went undetected until morning. When the guard found the doors broken and vaults emptied, Iran launched a sweeping but ultimately futile search.
The Revelation
Three months later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the stage. Standing beside a stack of black folders and discs, he accused Iran of lying to the world.
Netanyahu's presentation, backed by a private briefing to then-US President Donald Trump, helped push the White House to formally exit the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The documents, some dating back to 'Project Amad', Iran's suspected nuclear weapons initiative, allegedly showed secret testing, warhead miniaturisation, and blueprints to fit nuclear devices into Shahab-3 missiles.
Western intelligence agencies, after independent reviews, largely agreed. The documents were genuine and alarming. And they revealed that Iran's nuclear ambitions were more advanced than previously believed.
Iran's Response
Iran dismissed the archive as forged. But there was evidence.
Among the most damning files were references to uranium deuteride, a substance only known for its use in nuclear initiators, and a secret chamber at Parchin military base, suspected to have housed high-explosive tests for nuclear triggers.
The stolen archive also showed that Iran continued organising and preserving its nuclear knowledge even after the 2015 deal, moving materials to obscure locations, hiding documents from international inspectors, and plotting test sites.
Over the years, key Iranian nuclear scientists, including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and Masoud Ali Mohammadi, were assassinated, often in surgical strikes or mysterious explosions. Israel has never officially taken responsibility, but its fingerprints are widely suspected.
Iran, in return, has launched cyberattacks, targeted Israeli diplomats, and used its proxy networks across the Middle East.
June 2025 Israel-Iran War
On June 13, the long-brewing shadow war burst into open conflict.
Following Israel's strikes, Iran launched over 100 ballistic missiles and drones toward Israeli cities. Civilian areas were hit, including parts of Tel Aviv. At least 14 Israelis were killed and hundreds more injured. Several missiles pierced through Israel's famed Iron Dome defence system.
Now entering Day 7, the war shows no signs of slowing.
