Eliminated: How Israel Took Down Iran’s Top Nuclear Masterminds

In a special report set to be published in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth’s weekend supplement "7 Days", investigative journalist Ronen Bergman reveals the classified operation that targeted the upper echelon of Iran's nuclear program.

According to “Yotam” (a pseudonym), head of Iran’s nuclear portfolio within Israeli Military Intelligence, the IDF’s Research Division ranked over 100 key Iranian nuclear scientists into four tiers, from Level A (most critical) to D. When the war began, the top tier was killed.

The initiative, internally dubbed the “Beheading Forum,” brought together around 20 intelligence officers in a classified task force. Their mission: to select targets whose removal would cause maximum disruption to Iran’s nuclear efforts. “Knowledge is the most critical element in building a nuclear bomb,” Yotam says. “We chose those whose elimination would inflict the greatest strategic damage.”

Planning began in late 2022 under the codename “Narnia,” with the understanding among Israeli intelligence leaders that Iran had crossed the uranium enrichment threshold. The focus shifted to the weaponization team - the scientists building the actual bomb. The effort gained momentum after a string of regional developments in late 2024, including Hezbollah’s defeat, Israeli strikes in Iran, and the Assad regime’s collapse in Syria. These events, according to Israeli officials, created a rare strategic window to weaken Iran decisively.

The scientists were assessed for uniqueness of knowledge, irreplaceability, and proximity to core weaponization efforts. Those deemed critical were marked for elimination in a covert joint operation between Military Intelligence and the Israeli Air Force. The operation follows the legacy of previous assassinations, most notably that of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the so-called "father of Iran’s nuclear weapons program," who was killed in 2020 in a sophisticated ambush involving a remote-controlled weapon system.