After the Ceasefire: Israel’s Shift to Shadow Warfare Against Iran

According to Saed News, citing a report published by Mehr News, the Iranian security establishment is preparing for what it sees as a new phase in its confrontation with Israel: a pivot from kinetic warfare to covert operations and cognitive disruption. The ceasefire, observers argue, may prove to be little more than a tactical pause.

Veteran analysts in Tehran insist that Israel’s history of disregarding international norms and violating sovereign agreements suggests the post-conflict lull is deceptive. “The Zionists,” as Iranian officials routinely label the Israeli government, are now accused of pursuing two parallel tracks of subterfuge.

The first involves renewed efforts to carry out targeted assassinations and terror attacks within Iranian territory. While such allegations are not new—Israel has been linked to the assassinations of several Iranian nuclear scientists in the past—the concern is that Tel Aviv will increasingly rely on mercenaries and local proxies, exploiting the vulnerabilities exposed during the recent conflict.

The second, more insidious, threat is narrative warfare. Israel, the report warns, was caught off guard by the surge in Iranian national unity following its offensive—an outcome that saw even vocal dissidents abroad rally in defence of the homeland. Now, Iran claims, Israeli intelligence services and media channels are deploying disinformation to fracture this unity, using psychological operations to generate confusion, distrust, and ideological drift within Iran’s populace.

The conclusion drawn by Tehran’s analysts is unmistakable: the struggle has entered a more opaque phase. “The battlefield has changed, not vanished,” notes the Mehr News report. The focus now, they argue, must shift from rockets and radars to resilience and information integrity—areas where the costs of complacency could prove existential.