Iranian authorities said Wednesday that over 700 individuals have been detained and three executed on charges of espionage, following the conclusion of a 12-day war with Israel that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire on Tuesday. The crackdown appears aimed at quashing suspected collaboration with Israel as Tehran reels from heavy military losses and internal unrest.
State-affiliated Fars News Agency claimed that Israel’s intelligence network had been “highly active” in Iran and that the arrests were part of an ongoing effort to dismantle domestic support for foreign adversaries. According to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency, three men—Idris Ali, Azad Shojai, and Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul—were hanged in Urmia after being convicted of aiding in an assassination plot. The report said they were charged with “cooperation with the Zionist regime.”
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Photographs released by state media showed the condemned men in blue jumpsuits shortly before their executions. Similar executions reportedly took place earlier this week targeting individuals accused of working with Israeli intelligence services.
The arrests followed a wave of Israeli and US airstrikes that targeted Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, including key sites in Natanz, Fordo, and Isfahan. Iran responded by launching more than 550 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli defense officials.
Opposition leader Ashkan Rostami, speaking from exile in Italy, warned that the regime was now redirecting its aggression inward. Iran is currently the second-highest executor of prisoners in the world, after China, according to international human rights groups.