Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has made an extraordinary disclosure about the depth of Israel’s intelligence penetration inside Iran, saying Israeli personnel repeatedly “toured” the Fordow nuclear facility, one of Tehran’s most heavily protected underground enrichment sites.

“We toured the Fordow nuclear site many times in order to understand the site,” Cohen said while speaking at the Galilee Forum in Safed. He did not reveal when the visits occurred, how they were carried out or exactly who entered the facility. Israeli reports have interpreted his remarks as referring to Mossad or other Israeli intelligence operatives.

The revelation is particularly striking because Fordow was designed to be extraordinarily difficult to penetrate, both physically and through intelligence. Built deep inside a mountain near Qom, the facility became Iran’s primary location for enriching uranium to 60%, far beyond ordinary civilian-reactor levels and approaching the 90% enrichment associated with weapons-grade material.

Cohen said the eventual American bombing of Fordow was the realization of a goal he had pursued for years, describing the U.S. attack as the fulfillment of his dreams. The former Mossad chief also argued that having uranium enriched to 60% did not itself mean Iran already possessed a bomb, though nuclear experts have warned that material at that enrichment level could be rapidly enriched further.

Fordow was ultimately hit during the U.S. military’s Operation Midnight Hammer, when B-2 Spirit stealth bombers penetrated Iranian airspace and employed the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator for the first time in combat. The Pentagon said 14 of the enormous bunker-busting weapons were dropped against the Fordow and Natanz target areas, while Tomahawk missiles struck infrastructure at Isfahan. More than 125 American aircraft were involved in the operation.

The IAEA confirmed Fordow was directly hit, but initially said the extent of destruction inside the underground enrichment halls could not be determined because of the facility’s depth and the nature of the penetrating weapons. U.S. officials described the damage across the targeted nuclear sites as extremely severe, while the precise condition of some underground infrastructure remained difficult to independently verify.

Cohen’s disclosure also fits a much broader pattern of extraordinary Israeli intelligence operations inside Iran. In 2018, Mossad agents removed Iran’s secret nuclear archive from a Tehran warehouse, extracting tens of thousands of documents and files that Israel said exposed previously hidden elements of Tehran’s nuclear weapons work. Cohen has previously spoken publicly about that operation and hinted at Israeli involvement in other covert actions targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

According to Cohen, Israel had been studying Fordow for years. He previously revealed that Israeli intelligence became aware of developments there around 2010 and considered an extraordinarily ambitious operation against the facility involving large numbers of personnel. The proposal was ultimately shelved, with Israel increasingly focusing on developing a military option against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure instead.

The disclosure carries renewed significance as the nuclear confrontation shifts toward newer underground infrastructure. Israeli intelligence reportedly believes Iran moved thousands of centrifuges into the heavily fortified Pickaxe Mountain complex near Natanz after the destruction inflicted on its traditional nuclear sites. The IAEA has never inspected that underground complex, leaving its precise purpose and contents uncertain.

Cohen’s remarks offer a rare glimpse into how far Israel was prepared to go long before American bombers struck Fordow: not merely watching Iran’s nuclear program from satellites or intercepting communications, but, according to the former Mossad chief, repeatedly getting close enough to one of Tehran’s most sensitive facilities to study it from the inside.