The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on several occasions during 2025 and 2026 its intention to target key Israeli intelligence headquarters, including the Mossad (foreign intelligence), Shin Bet (internal security), and Aman (military intelligence) headquarters in the heart of Tel Aviv and its suburbs. These recent Iranian attacks against Israeli military and intelligence targets and headquarters are part of what has been termed Iran War 2026, which began with preemptive US-Israeli strikes in late February 2026 targeting nuclear and security sites in Tehran. Iran responded with waves of missile attacks targeting airports, military bases, and intelligence headquarters in Tel Aviv and Beersheba. These Iranian attacks are part of a broader military escalation that has included Iranian missile strikes in retaliation for assassinations targeting Iranian leaders. The Iranian military’s announcement of targeting the headquarters of the Israeli intelligence agency (Mossad) and the General Security Service (Shin Bet) in Tel Aviv on March 11 and 12, 2026, came as part of reciprocal attacks within the context of the Iran 2026 War, which began on February 28, 2026. According to official Iranian statements and field reports in March 2026, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced targeting the headquarters of Aman (Israeli Military Intelligence), which the Iranian military claimed to have targeted on March 11, 2026. The Shin Bet headquarters was also targeted in the same wave of missile strikes. The IRGC also confirmed targeting Mossad operations centers in Tel Aviv. Following the announcement of targeting the Israeli Glilot base, Hezbollah announced targeting this base (which houses Unit 8200) with missiles on March 12, 2026.
Iran also announced the success of its Aerospace Force (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) in carrying out a precise and effective operation targeting Israeli intelligence headquarters, despite the presence of advanced air defense systems. Iranian missiles struck the Aman (Military Intelligence) and Mossad centers in the heart of Tel Aviv. The official Iranian statement declared that the targeted sites were among the most important headquarters for planning assassinations and Israeli intelligence operations targeting the Iranian people and resistance forces in the region. Brigadier General Ali Reza Talaei-Nak, spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Defense, confirmed that the Iranian armed forces used a new type of missile in their attack on Israel, which the enemy was unable to detect. .
There are several details regarding China’s role in directing Iran’s attacks, primarily targeting the US archives. These details include the nature of the attacks, their results, and the targeted locations. Iran announced that it targeted the headquarters of Aman (Israeli Military Intelligence), the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and two air bases in Tel Aviv with drones and missiles. This resulted in numerous Israeli casualties, with explosions and damage to buildings in central Israel reported as a result of the Iranian projectiles. However, no physical security breach to obtain US military archives was confirmed. The Israeli and American response to these Iranian attacks involved continued strikes against Iranian missile and drone infrastructure, along with the announcement of the deaths of prominent Iranian security leaders, such as Ali Larijani and Gholam Reza Soleimani.
Furthermore, evidence suggests that China provided strategic support to Iran by supplying it with information on the movements of US naval vessels and software technology to reduce its reliance on Western systems. With indirect Chinese guidance to Iranian operations, the aim is to obtain the American intelligence archive from within targeted Israeli intelligence headquarters. Here, Chinese support is seen as a contributing factor in strengthening Iranian defenses and providing advanced drone tactics to counter American and Israeli technological superiority. Therefore, the objective of these Iranian strikes on Israeli military and intelligence headquarters can be analyzed as a desire to seize physical or digital archives pertaining to American movements and activities in Israel and the region. This aligns with Israel’s stated objectives of targeting Israeli assassination and sabotage centers in retaliation for previous Israeli operations within Tehran itself.
The Iranian strikes against Israeli intelligence and military targets (particularly in June 2025 and March 2026) focused on Israeli intelligence decision-making centers, including the Aman headquarters responsible for planning, and Mossad facilities in the Herzliya area. While Iran asserts that it achieved precise hits and destroyed parts of these sites, there has been no official Israeli confirmation regarding the extent of material damage or human losses in those specific buildings. Israel has merely indicated that most of the missiles were intercepted or that some fell in open areas.
This is where China’s role comes in, contributing to the success of Iranian targeting tactics and strikes against Tel Aviv within the framework of intensive intelligence and military cooperation between the two countries. This cooperation stems from increasing support and technical collaboration, including supplying Iran with advanced radar systems such as the YLC-8B and sensor technologies to counter Israeli stealth aircraft. China has also assisted Iran in conducting technical investigations to close the security gaps previously exploited by Mossad to penetrate Iranian databases, such as civil registry and passport records. Furthermore, Beijing has played a role in bolstering what is termed Iran’s digital sovereignty by replacing Western and American software with Chinese-made, encrypted systems that are difficult to breach, a process described as building a digital defense wall. This is particularly significant after Mossad’s historically successful infiltration, culminating in the theft of Iran’s nuclear archive from Tehran in 2018, an act Iran considers a major breach and is working to address its repercussions in cooperation with China and Russia. Here, China seeks to obtain complete data on the American archives and all American movements within Tel Aviv. This is what Iran targeted in its attacks on Israeli headquarters, aiming to obtain specific American archives with Chinese assistance. However, Iranian-Chinese cooperation focuses primarily on protecting Iranian data from ongoing breaches and monitoring Israeli and American intelligence activities in the region.
The Chinese role also proved successful for its ally Iran in carrying out its military mission within Tel Aviv. The successful tactics for targeting the Mossad and Israeli military intelligence headquarters, in particular, were due to Chinese technical and navigational support for Iran. Because of Iran’s use of the Chinese BeiDou satellite navigation system.
Iran succeeded in directing its strikes with high precision into Israeli territory. In addition to supporting Iran with cybersecurity technologies, China began a strategy in January 2026 to bolster Iranian digital sovereignty by replacing Western and American software with secure, closed Chinese systems that are difficult to penetrate. This was intended to protect Tehran from Israeli and American cyberattacks. China’s official stance was to condemn the American-Israeli strikes, deeming them a violation of Iranian sovereignty, while denying direct military involvement or the deployment of warships to participate in the conflict.
From my analytical perspective, Iran’s deliberate targeting of Israeli military and intelligence headquarters, primarily those of Mossad, Shin Bet, and Military Intelligence (Aman), may have been aimed at obtaining the American archives at Chinese direction. This is due to the increasing scale of publicly declared Chinese-Iranian cooperation, with China focusing on strengthening Iranian cyber defenses and rebuilding missile capabilities damaged during the war. In this context, some accounts circulated misleading videos about the results of Iranian attacks on Tel Aviv, which can be considered news sources operating as part of the media war accompanying the ongoing conflict.
