Protest leaders who disappear into thin air and foreign weapons used to gun down bystanders leave demonstrators wondering if they witnessed Israeli agents in action
January feels an age away for Iranians. The dangers of the authorities’ crackdown on anti-government protests have been replaced with a month of incessant US and Israeli strikes and the threat of a looming ground invasion.
Yet for many, the memory of odd, unexplained incidents during the wave of demonstrations itches in the back of their minds.
One Iranian describes seeing a man disguised as a street sweeper pulling out a revolver and shooting two girls in a calm side street.
Others recall seeing blocs of coordinated people dressed all in black leading the protests, or people killed with weapons that are not used by the security forces of the Iranian establishment.
Iran’s latest round of nationwide protests broke out at the turn of the year, rising first in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar in response to inflation before growing and becoming a vehicle for anger at the Islamic Republic as a whole.
As the protests unfolded, figures like former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israel’s heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, said that Mossad agents were among the demonstrators.
On 22 March, the New York Times also revealed that before the recent war, Mossad’s director told senior Israeli and US officials that his agents in Iran could spark a new uprising and overthrow the government from within.
Eyewitness accounts, official statements and previous evidence point to a pattern that suggests outside influence on the ground.
Mossad has been running agents in Iran for years, carrying out sabotage operations and assassinating nuclear scientists, military commanders and even the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh.
During the 12-day Israeli war on Iran in June, Israel appeared to have infiltrated the highest levels of the establishment’s armed forces and had several agents on the ground.
This time around, Iranian authorities say they have arrested at least 45 people in various cities since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February, accusing the detainees of ‘espionage’ and ‘collaboration with enemy states’.
Disguised gunmen
After days of unrest, Iranian authorities began to suppress the protests with an iron fist on 8 January.
According to official figures, 3,117 people were killed – including protesters, security forces and bystanders.
Opposition groups say the real number is much higher. The US-based human rights organisation HRANA estimates at least 7,015 deaths.
Iran’s police, security services, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Basij paramilitaries have previously responded to protests with deadly brutality, most notably in the 2022 Mahsa Amini demonstrations.
Even so, the January toll was high by their own standards.
The establishment insisted that agents linked to Mossad were responsible for some of the killings.
Mehdi Kharatian, a figure close to the establishment’s central circle and an unofficial security adviser, compared the deaths to the 2024 pager attack in Lebanon, when Israel detonated thousands of Hezbollah devices, wounding 2,931 people and killing another 37.
That attack proved to be the opening salvo of a bombing and ground campaign that devastated the Lebanese armed movement.
‘A shock had to come to Iran, like the Lebanese pagers,’ Kharatian said.
‘Blood had to be shed in Iran to influence world public opinion and prepare the ground for a military attack.’
‘Black bloc’
Sources who took part in the January protests told MEE about incidents that went beyond anything seen in previous uprisings or crackdowns in Iran.
One source spoke about seeing people on the outskirts of Tehran that were clearly ‘unusual’ and not local.
They described a man leading a group of protesters who had blocked a main street.
‘It was very strange to see so many people protesting in our neighbourhood because usually not much happens where I live,’ the source said.
‘They were pulling down street signs and burning trash cans. Their leader told me the street was closed and I could not drive through,’ they added.
‘When I asked if I could reach my home through a side street, he looked confused and said he didn’t know and that he was not from this area.’
Another source who attended a demonstration on 8 January in eastern Tehran described a small group of protesters wearing masks who moved together, chanted and led the crowd.
He said they acted like a ‘black bloc’, a protest tactic unknown in Iran but common in the West, where demonstrators conceal their appearances in a uniformed manner.
‘They were like what you see in black bloc videos from protests in Europe. They moved together, and when clashes with security forces began, they disappeared immediately,’ the source said.
Random killings
HRANA and other rights groups have reported that some of those killed were not protesters or security forces.
Witnesses described to MEE seeing civilian bystanders gunned down seemingly at random by unknown assailants.
Although the authorities have killed hundreds of people in the crackdown, and have a history of publicising deaths to sow fear, sources on the ground suggested that what they saw did not appear to be the work of Iranian security forces.
One source in Iran said they had watched bystanders being killed from the roof of their home in a northern city near the Caspian Sea on 9 January.
‘I went up to the roof to see what was happening. Two young girls entered our alley, far from the centre of the protests. As they walked down the street, a street sweeper suddenly pulled out a handgun and shot them. Both girls fell to the ground,’ they said.
A similar incident in the city of Qazvin, about 150km west of Tehran, was also reported to MEE by a source inside the IRGC.
According to this source, a mother and her young son were killed on a street where there was no protest, with a weapon that did not belong to the security and intelligence forces or the Basij paramilitaries.
While it is not certain why Mossad agents would kill civilians at random, there are various indications that they were present and active in Iran at the time.
A Persian account on X widely perceived to be linked to Mossad posted on 29 December: ‘Let us come out to the streets together. The time has come. We are with you. Not just from afar and in words. We are with you in the field as well.’
Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, meanwhile, stressed at the time: ‘I can assure you that our people are working there right now.’
Similarly, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted on X: ‘Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them…’
Iranian officials have also, on various occasions, blamed Mossad agents for the high number of casualties during the anti-establishment demonstrations. However, most of the protesters MEE spoke with have rejected this.