A senior figure in Israel’s National Security Council cautioned that Iranian operations have grown markedly.
By Hezy Laing
2025 was the deadliest year for Jews in the diaspora in 30+ years.
2025 saw fewer total incidents than 2024 in some countries, but far more deadly ones.
The trend is: less harassment, more lethal attacks. 20 killed in J7 countries alone, and 40 murdered globally per ARC.
Security officials indicated that in the past year, numerous major attempts to carry out terrorist attacks against Jews around the world have been thwarted.
These terror plots have frequently been dismantled just moments before execution due to deep intelligence sharing between the Mossad and its international counterparts.
A major breakthrough occurred in March 2026 when British security services and the Mossad neutralized an active Iranian intelligence network in London.
Authorities arrested an Iranian citizen and three dual Iranian-British nationals who were caught conducting precise surveillance and collecting actionable data on major Jewish community institutions for an impending strike.
At the same time, an IRGC plot was foiled in Baku, Azerbaijan, where local security forces arrested at least seven Azerbaijani nationals and issued warrants for four Iranian handlers.
The cell had amassed three explosive devices intended to bomb the local Ashkenazi synagogue, assassinate a prominent Jewish community leader, and attack the Israeli embassy.
A senior figure in Israel’s National Security Council cautioned that Iranian operations have grown markedly.
“The Iranians have substantially expanded the bodies and infrastructure intended to advance attacks abroad,” the official said. “From their perspective, this is a strategic worldview.”
He added that the current period carries heightened risk. “Every year this is a period prone to trouble, but this year even more so,” he said.
Detailed intelligence has also exposed a broader Iranian strategy of using criminal proxies to maintain plausible deniability.
An international probe unveiled a network commanded by Sardar Amar, a senior IRGC Quds Force officer under Esmail Qaani, which had set up hidden operational mechanisms to launch strikes across Germany, Greece, and Australia.
By providing real-time data to sovereign partners, the Mossad has dismantled these covert frameworks, resulting in severe diplomatic counter-actions, including the expulsion of Iranian ambassadors and the systematic tightening of security around vulnerable diaspora centers.
These interventions follow a massive multi-national operation in late 2025 that targeted a European Hamas infrastructure managed from Qatar and Turkey.
The Mossad assisted German and Austrian authorities in capturing Mahmoud Naim, the son of senior Hamas official Basem Naim.
Investigators uncovered hidden weapons caches in places like Austria and arrested multiple operatives, including a fourth accomplice in Germany in January 2026, who were awaiting direct commands to initiate mass casualty events.
Although the group is currently refraining from large-scale action in the Gaza Strip and faces heavy Israeli pressure that limits its movement in Judea and Samaria, Hamas sees Israeli interests abroad as a space where it can operate with fewer constraints.
Consequently, Hamas has intensified its efforts to strike Israelis outside Israel’s borders.
