Overview of Operations and Attacks Attributed to Israel on Iranian Soil

The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the extremist group Hamas, in Tehran has once again pointed fingers at Israel, although Israel has yet to officially take responsibility for the attack. Ismail Haniyeh, who was in Iran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Masoud Pezeshkian, was reportedly killed at 2 AM on Wednesday, July 31, by a projectile from the air in one of the special residences for veterans in northern Tehran. This news quickly became the headline of global media, and in most reactions from officials and media, Israel's name was again mentioned as the main perpetrator of this assassination. The enmity between Israel and Hamas (a group that the US and the European Union consider terrorist) and Israel's animosity towards Ismail Haniyeh is not the only reason for attributing this operation to Israel; over the past decade, sabotage actions and the assassination of several Iranian officials, particularly related to the nuclear project on Iranian soil, have been attributed to Israel. Meanwhile, Israel has never officially and explicitly taken responsibility for any of these attacks. In the last one or two decades, which political and military figures have been killed in operations and attacks attributed to Israel on Iranian soil? Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the 'mysterious man' of Iran's nuclear program, was killed on December 7, 2020, while driving his car on the Abasrd road in the suburbs of Tehran. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, had mentioned his name two and a half years prior to his assassination as the 'father of Iran's nuclear bomb' and said, 'Remember this name.' Fakhrizadeh, who was on the UN Security Council's sanctions list, was referred to as a 'key figure' and 'senior manager' of Iran's nuclear programs, a position he held from 2001 until his death. Iranian media referred to him as a 'scientist working at the Ministry of Defense and former director of the Physics Research Center' or 'university professor.' He was also referred to as the 'mysterious man of Iran's nuclear program,' and once Foreign Policy magazine included him in its list of the 500 most powerful people in the world. Although Iran had previously attributed the killings of its scientists and some other officials to Israel, Fakhrizadeh is the most significant Iranian official killed in an operation attributed to Israel on Iranian soil. Despite Israel never taking responsibility for the assassination of this Iranian official, Yossi Cohen, the then-head of Mossad, implicitly confirmed Israel's involvement in the assassination attempt on Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in a spring 2021 interview with Channel 12 in Israel. An Israeli official stated that killing Fakhrizadeh did not 'slow down Iran's nuclear progress.' The New York Times also reported three years ago, providing details of the attack, that Israel chose a smart machine gun for this operation, which was a combination of a Belgian-made automatic weapon of the 'fly fan' type, equipped with a complex robotic system that made it resemble an automatic gun room known as 'Sentinel 20,' made by the Spanish arms manufacturing company Scribno. The operation itself lasted a total of one minute, and despite the gun's capability to fire 600 bullets in a minute, only over 15 bullets were fired during this operation. The assassination of the number two figure of Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden's daughter in Tehran, in August 2020, shows that Ismail Haniyeh is not the only non-Iranian figure killed in attacks attributed to Israel on Iranian soil. Iranian media reported on August 8, 2020, that two Lebanese citizens named Habib Dawood, a 58-year-old history professor, and his 27-year-old daughter Maryam were shot dead by four bullets in the vicinity of Golestan 1 on Pasdaran Street in Tehran. It later became clear that these two were Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, known as Abu Muhammad al-Masri, the number two man in Al-Qaeda, and his daughter Maryam, the wife of Osama Bin Laden's son. The Mehr news agency reported that in this incident, five shots were fired by a motorcyclist 'from the driver's side,' with 'four bullets hitting the vehicle' and 'the fifth shot hitting another passing car.' Despite the denial of this assassination by the then-spokesman of Iran's Foreign Ministry, the New York Times reported in November of that year, citing US intelligence officials, that he was killed by two motorcyclists on Pasdaran Street in Tehran. The United States also collaborated with Israel in this operation, providing information about the location and identity of the number two man in Al-Qaeda to Mossad agents. Abu Muhammad al-Masri was killed by a special unit of Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, known as 'Kidon,' which means 'bayonet' in Hebrew, and is said to have developed a unique method over the years for infiltrating hostile countries and killing opponents of Israel. Mr. al-Masri's daughter and the widow of Bin Laden's son, Maryam, were also targets of this operation. Mr. al-Masri's wife was the spouse of Hamza Bin Laden, Osama Bin Laden's successor, who had previously been killed during a US anti-terrorism operation on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The killing of this Al-Qaeda figure in Tehran was attributed to Israel, while in the years prior, assassination attempts on individuals involved in Iran's nuclear project, known as 'nuclear scientists,' were attributed to Israel. Ardshir Hassanpour, the first assassination of 'nuclear scientists' in Iran, was reported to have been killed by 'radioactive gas' and 'by Mossad' for the first time by the Stratfor Institute on February 1, 2007, just 17 days after his death. The news of Mr. Hassanpour's death was delayed, and the first report was published by the 'Jomhouri Islami' newspaper on January 21 of that year, stating that Ardshir Hassanpour died due to 'gas poisoning.' Less than two weeks after Mr. Hassanpour's death in 2007, reports about his assassination by Mossad were published, but Iranian government officials claimed, 'Mossad does not have the capability to operate in Iran.' The Fars news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, also wrote that Mr. Hassanpour 'had no connection to the Isfahan nuclear facilities' and that 'such news is fabricated for psychological operations and propaganda.' At that time, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei was the Minister of Intelligence of Iran, and the Ministry of Intelligence was responsible for protecting nuclear scientists. However, Mostafa Moein, the Minister of Science in Khatami's government in 2020, 14 years after the narratives of the security agencies, wrote on Instagram that those narratives were lies and that Ardshir Hassanpour was assassinated by 'Mossad agents' using 'radioactive gas.' Of course, another scenario has also been proposed regarding Mr. Hassanpour's death. Mahbubeh Hassanpour, Ardshir Hassanpour's sister, who resides in the United States, has repeatedly stated in interviews over the years that her brother was killed by the Revolutionary Guards because he did not cooperate in building nuclear weapons. Other 'nuclear scientists' such as Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, and Majid Shahriari are also mentioned alongside Ardshir Hassanpour as 'nuclear scientists' killed by Israel on Iranian soil. The similarities in the manner of these individuals' deaths have strengthened the hypothesis among experts that these actions were carried out by Israel. Massoud Ali Mohammadi, a professor of quantum physics at Tehran University, was killed in January 2010 when an explosion occurred while he was taking his car out of his garage in Qeytarieh, Tehran. Iranian officials stated that a bomb exploded when Mr. Ali Mohammadi was exiting, and the intensity of the explosion was such that the windows of nearby buildings were shattered. Majid Shahriari, a physicist and professor at Beheshti University, who was said to be linked to Iran's nuclear programs, and also Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, another professor of atomic physics at Beheshti University, were both targeted in separate bombings on December 29, 2019, in northern Tehran, not far from each other. According to Iranian officials, both assassination attempts were carried out by motorcyclists, and in both cases, a bomb was attached to the bodies of these individuals' cars using magnets. In these assassination attempts, Majid Shahriari was killed, but Fereydoun Abbasi Davani was appointed as the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization after recovering from his injuries. Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32 years old, was killed in January 2012, two years after the assassination of Mr. Ali Mohammadi, on Gol Nabi Street near Ketabi Square in Tehran while sitting in his car alongside his bodyguard and driver, due to the explosion of a bomb attached to his Peugeot 405. The American publication Time, citing 'Western intelligence sources' without naming them, reported that Mossad was responsible for this murder. The similarity in the method of killing these individuals led Iranian officials to point the finger at Israel after the assassination of Mr. Ahmadi Roshan. Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a day after the assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, confidently attributed this act to Mossad and the CIA, emphasizing that there would be no forgiveness for revenge. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government also sent a message to the US and the UK a few days later, demanding immediate explanations regarding this murder and claiming to have 'documents' regarding the involvement of these countries in this matter. Although US Defense and Foreign Ministers 'firmly' denied any involvement of their country in this assassination, Shimon Peres, the then-President of Israel, also stated in an interview with the Spanish section of CNN that 'as far as he knows,' his country had no involvement in this murder.