A top-secret Israeli military intelligence office was heavily damaged by an Iranian ballistic missile that struck a residential area of Tel Aviv, according to a report. Tehran carried out the strike on the very first day of its war with the joint US-Israeli forces, in late February. The Israeli technical website Calcalistech.com recently reported the information, citing Spytek.
The report said that although the incident was widely discussed at the time as an ordinary explosion in a residential area, the fact that its real target was an important military intelligence centre had until now been completely covered up. A medium-range Iranian ballistic missile, it said, entirely evaded Israel’s so-called impenetrable air-defence system and struck directly at the secret geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) base in the heart of Tel Aviv. This highly protected, secret national geospatial-technology centre had been concealed inside an ordinary residential area, and was shaken by the strike.
The information that has caused a stir through this leak is that Israel’s National Geodetic Institute — located just 50 feet from the impact site and the main blast zone — was the principal target of the missile strike, and that the centre was badly damaged by the force of the explosion. It is not an ordinary civilian office; it serves mainly as the headquarters of the Israeli military intelligence agency’s top-secret “Unit 9900.” In simple terms, “Unit 9900” is the equivalent of the United States’ National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Its main work is to gather geographic and location-based intelligence through satellites, warplanes, drones and other advanced technical means.
Which bases to strike on the battlefield, where to drop bombs, the enemy’s military movements, and the structure of the terrain — this unit prepares all such complex military secrets and precise maps and supplies them to Israeli pilots and infantry. Put simply, the unit acts as the battlefield’s “eyes,” supplying the army with detailed information about what is happening where. The 3D maps and real-time drone data sent from this office are the main driving force behind all of Israel’s ongoing air and ground operations in Gaza and Lebanon. Unit 9900 even runs a special low-flying drone unit that gathers immediate intelligence directly from the battlefield.
Spytek’s investigative report stated clearly that, immediately after the incident, Israel’s strict military censorship authority imposed a complete ban on publishing in the media any details of the damage to this sensitive intelligence base or its distance from the explosion site. As a result, no news published at the time made any mention of damage to military infrastructure, or of whether any military personnel were killed or injured. Concealing such a highly sensitive military intelligence base in the middle of Tel Aviv’s densely populated urban area, the report said, has now placed the lives of ordinary Israeli civilians at extreme risk. Analysing the pattern of damage and the precise targeting, Spytek’s assessment said there was no chance the Iranian strike had missed; rather, this major and sensitive Israeli intelligence centre hidden in the heart of Tel Aviv was the true target of the Iranian missile.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report