Name: How deep Israel's intelligence penetration inside Iran really is | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-03-19T23:02:47.000Z
Duration: 14 min 49 s
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We begin the day with the war against Iran moving deeper into Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Israeli warplanes launched some of the most intense airstrikes in this war.

No longer just the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The core of the Lebanese capital is now also taking hits.

Israel says it continues to target sites used by the Iranian backed militant group Hezbollah.

Lebanese authorities say at least 12 people were killed Wednesday when apartment buildings in several residential neighborhoods were struck.

On Wednesday morning, Israel brought the war to the heart of Beirut.

It struck three densely populated neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital.

In the Bashura area, one building was completely flattened, shocking ordinary people who lived just meters away.

Israel called it a facility used by Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim militant group backed by Iran.

Not fight and displace innocent people, elderly people.

Israelis are just focused on causing pain.

Two other neighborhoods were also struck, including one close to government headquarters and several embassies.

Residents said they received no warning and the missiles caught them unawares when they were still in bed.

We were sleeping when we heard the bomb fall on us.

We came out and found the street like this.

We've been out on the street since 8:30am with nothing but the clothes on our backs.

Hezbollah's Al Mana TV station said the director of its political programs and his wife were killed in one of the strikes.

Israel's military confirmed striking Beirut and several locations in southern Lebanon.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said the strikes targeted Hezbollah facilities in response to dozens of rockets that were launched towards Israeli territory.

It said warnings had been issued for some locations.

Lebanese authorities say Israeli strikes have now killed more than 900 people since March 2 and displaced over a million more.

Joining me now is Raz Zemt, director of the Iran and the Shiite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

He's also co editor of the journal strategic assessment.

We're now seeing Israeli strikes hitting central Beirut, not just Hezbollah areas.

What does it tell you about Israel's strategy here?

So actually, with the exception of several bridges which were targeted in southern Lebanon, which could be described as state assets, the majority of the targets targeted by Israel since the beginning of the war against Hezbollah were Hezbollah related.

And so again, with the exception of some hitting Iranian personnel in Beirut or Palestinian officials in Beirut, but

the majority of the targets were Hezbollah.

So I would say that while there is, there are some voices in Israel encouraging to put more pressure on.

On the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, but

at least for now, Israel has mostly targeted the Hezbollah targets in Beirut, in the Berkovali, certainly in southern Lebanon, but

And you don't think, though, that these strikes, these attacks, could be perceived as an attempt to pressure the Lebanese state?

I think that there is a realization in Israel that generally speaking, Israel and the Lebanese government, the current Lebanese government, share the same interest to disarm Hezbollah.

Having said that, we should not forget that Israel has tried to convince the Lebanese government and the Lebanese army since the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in December 2024 to move forward to break the infrastructures and facilities set up by Hezbollah not just in South Lebanon, but

also in Beirut and other areas in Lebanon.

And despite the efforts made by the Lebanese army to do something about that, it was certainly insufficient.

And so, as I said, there are those in Israel who believe that more pressure is required.

Are you convinced that Hezbollah is being degraded at the moment?

I think the main question is whether at the end of this war we will be able to create better strategic circumstances which would allow to put an end to this condition where Hezbollah actually serves as a state within the state.

As I said, Israel shares the view that the monopoly over the weapons in Lebanon should be under the Lebanese government's direction.

And therefore, even if Hezbollah is degraded, if we don't move forward together with the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, it's only a matter of time until Israel is going to be forced into further action.

Again, I want to talk a little bit now about Iran.

Here's the Defense Minister, Israel Katz, speaking today.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the IDF to neutralize any senior Iranian official who has been located, both intelligence wise and operationally, without the need for additional approval.

We'll continue to target and hunt them all.

Mr. Zemp, Israel says that it has killed another top Iranian official today.

That brings the total to three key security officials in Iran killed this week.

What does this tell you about how deep Israel's intelligence penetration inside Iran really is?

You know, we didn't have to see the recent decapitations of Lari Jani and the commander of the Basij and the Iranian Minister of Intelligence to understand that Israel enjoys a very deep intelligence penetration.

We saw that during the first few hours of the war, including the killing of Khamenei.

We saw that during the few first hours of the 12 day war in June.

We actually saw that before, for example, during the Israeli attack, an assassination of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a compound being used by the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran.

I think this is the main issue, is that it's a clear indication that Israel and the United States since the beginning of the war might not pursue the objective of toppling the Iranian regime.

Because I think everyone realized that it's going to be almost impossible to do that through aerial strikes.

But I think it's very clear that Israel wants to undermine and to weaken Iran's political and security establishment and certainly its security forces and repressive capabilities.

Well, if Israel can keep reaching into the upper ranks of Iran's leadership, as we've been seeing, what does that do to the war, though?

Is it going to shorten the war or is it going to guarantee that we see a longer, more dangerous conflict?

It seems to me that the current obstacle towards the ending the war seems to be the crisis in Hormuz Straits rather than the targets.

We will always have more and more targets, as Israeli officials made it very clear.

We are still talking about another month or several weeks of campaign in Iran.

That's more than enough to continue the Israeli efforts to strike irgc, Basij, Iranian officials, some infrastructures perhaps.

And so the end of the war, which by the way will be decided not by Israel, by President Trump, in my view, has to do more with what we will see over the energy sector and the Iranian attempts to block the Hormuz Strait, rather than the question of how far we continue the Israeli efforts when it comes to assets inside Iran.

Zemp, if US President Trump were to say this evening that the war is over, mission accomplished, what would that mean for Israel and its goals?

That would leave Israel in the lurch A little bit wouldn't will mean that it's going to be more difficult to make sure that one, the Iranian regime is weakened even further.

For example, it's going to be more difficult to make sure that in case of a resumed protest movement in Iran this time it might be more successful than before.

And it also has to do with the Israeli objective of degrading Iran's both nuclear and ballistic missiles capacities.

In order to make sure that we don't only hit those targets, but

also make sure that this time, unlike the 12 Day War in June, Iran will not be able to recover and to reconstitute its ballistic missiles capacities as they did after this war.

There are some warnings even from US Officials about potential Iranian linked attacks far beyond the Middle East.

How real is the risk that this conflict spills into Europe or even into the United States?

I think that the main threat when it comes to Europe and the United States seems to be the potential implementation or using by Iran of terrorist cells and infrastructures.

In Europe we've seen that already and perhaps in the United States.

I don't see any scenario in which Iran tries to launch missiles at Europe.

We know that the number of Iranian missiles being launched not just against Israel, but

forces in the region seems to be very much declined.

I think that the use of terrorist infrastructures and, and, and