TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian media said Wednesday that Israel briefly hacked the state television broadcast, airing footage of women’s protests and urging people to take to the streets.
On its Telegram channel, the Hamshahri daily newspaper shared a video of the brief disruption with a text saying “hackers infiltrated state television and broadcast a call asking people to take to the streets.”
Iran’s state television later warned viewers that this was “due to cyberattacks carried out by the Zionist enemy that is disrupting the satellite transmission.”
Israel’s United Nations spokesperson Jonathan Harounoff also shared a clip of the television disruption.
The clip apparently contained footage from 2022 during mass protests against the government over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman held by the country’s morality police.
It came as Iran limited internet service, claiming Israel was using the medium for military purposes.
Israel on Friday launched a campaign of airstrikes in Iran to decimate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which Jerusalem characterized as an imminent, existential threat. Iran has responded with deadly barrages of ballistic missiles at civilian population centers and military targets in Israel.
Though Israel has said that its military campaign is not aimed at bringing down the Iranian regime, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a series of comments in favor of that outcome.
In a Hebrew interview aired on Channel 14 on Wednesday, Netanyahu said of the Iranian people, “In the end, they have to rise up themselves, but we are creating the conditions” for an overthrow.
The prime minister twice claimed that “80 percent” of Iranians “hate” the ruling regime, without providing where the figure came from.
Netanyahu also told Fox News on Sunday that regime change in Iran “could certainly be the result” of Israel’s ongoing military campaign, though he did not say it was the goal.
Hours after Israel began its attacks on Iran, Netanyahu addressed Iranians directly in an English language video, saying it will “clear the path for you to achieve your freedom,” as he denounced the Islamic Republic as an “evil and oppressive regime.”
“Our fight is against the murderous Islamic regime that oppresses and impoverishes you,” he further said, adding: “This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard.”
Earlier Wednesday, Israel had hit Iran’s police headquarters in Tehran, as the IDF kept up heavy strikes across the Islamic Republic on the sixth day of fighting between the two countries, and as thousands continued to flee the Iranian capital.
Jets “destroyed the headquarters of the Iranian regime’s internal security, the main arm of the Iranian dictator’s oppression,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
And on Monday, Israel bombed Iran’s state broadcaster building in Tehran in the middle of a transmission, sending Sahar Emami, an anchor at the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, hurrying off-camera as the screen behind her cut out.
Israeli media pundits have noted that some of Israel’s bombing runs in Iran are destroying the state’s symbols of power and its ability to govern, a move that would pave the way for an uprising against the regime.
Iran has long insisted its nuclear program was peaceful, though it is the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.