JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Iranian intelligence is pursuing an expansive assassination campaign inside Israel that extends far beyond Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli security officials warned, with the threat reaching deep into the country’s political and security establishment.

According to a report in Israel Hayom, Iranian operatives have leveraged an espionage network exposed in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks to recruit Israelis for potential attacks on senior figures. A security official identified as Ben Hanan told the outlet that targeting individuals for harm has become a central objective in many recent Iranian espionage cases in Israel.

“Many people implicated in espionage affairs over the past two years were at some point offered the chance to assassinate a senior Israeli figure or asked to gather intelligence in preparation for such an attack,” the official said.

Recruitment tactics have varied in their directness. In some cases, handlers made blunt proposals for assassinations. In others, they requested preliminary intelligence or simply tested recruits’ willingness to carry out such operations, the report said.

The scale of the effort is significant. Since the start of the current war, Israel’s Shin Bet security service and police have uncovered 38 cases of Israelis recruited by Iran, with 13 of those involving requests tied to assassination-related activity, Israel Hayom reported.

Much of the Iranian operation was overseen by Revolutionary Guards Gen. Saeed Izadi, who managed a broader campaign aimed at assassinating and kidnapping senior Israelis before he was killed during Operation Rising Lion, according to the report.

Israeli authorities continue to monitor and disrupt these networks amid heightened tensions with Iran and its proxies. Officials have repeatedly stressed that the Islamic Republic views high-profile assassinations as a key tool in its conflict with the Jewish state.

VINnews will continue to monitor developments in this ongoing threat.