Inside the 60-second strike: How Israel breached Iran’s most secure fortress

US and Israel assassinated Iran's Khamenei on Feb 28 in a 60-second missile strike after Mossad hacked Tehran's traffic cameras for intel

In a stunning breach of one of the world's most secure fortresses, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated in a joint US-Israeli missile strike on February 28, 2026. According to newly revealed details, the precise 60-second operation was the culmination of a years-long intelligence campaign by Israel's Mossad, which deeply infiltrated Iran's security networks.

The key to penetrating Khamenei’s stronghold was a sophisticated cyberattack on Tehran's own infrastructure. Mossad reportedly hacked nearly all of the Iranian capital's traffic cameras. The captured video feeds were encrypted and transmitted directly to Israeli servers, allowing military officials in Tel Aviv to monitor movements around Khamenei’s home and office in real time.

A strategically located camera near Pasteur Street, which houses key government offices, proved crucial. It enabled Israeli intelligence to track the daily operations of the compound and observe where security personnel parked their vehicles. To further isolate the target, Mossad reportedly hacked and disabled selected mobile phone towers in the area just before the attack, crippling the security detail's ability to communicate.

This surveillance edge allowed the military to pinpoint the Supreme Leader’s exact location, leading to a devastating barrage of 30 missiles and bombs last Saturday.

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"We knew Tehran as well as we knew Jerusalem," a current Israeli intelligence officer revealed. "When you know Iran like the street you grew up on, it’s easier to carry out an attack."

The operation relied on billions of data points gathered through social network analysis to map out Iranian leadership. Itai Shapira, a brigadier general in the Israeli military reserves, emphasized the foundational role of this data. "In the Israeli intelligence culture, targeting intelligence is a very essential tactical problem... If the decision-makers decide to assassinate someone, there is a culture in Israel that says, 'We will provide the targeting intelligence.'"

Israel has a long-established history of conducting targeted strikes against high-ranking military officers and nuclear scientists. This latest operation underscores Mossad's extensive daily intelligence gathering and its unparalleled capability to turn deep cyber espionage into swift, lethal action.

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