Iranian officials believe that explosions across the country over the past month are acts of sabotage by Israel, according to a Tuesday report.
While officially the mysterious blasts hitting apartment buildings, oil facilities, and factories have been blamed on aging infrastructure, three Iranian officials, including a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, told The New York Times they suspect Israel is to blame.
A European official who deals with Iran also told the newspaper he suspects Israel is involved.
Recent times have seen one or two such incidents a day. Some locations involved key infrastructure, such as a fire that killed one person over the weekend, while others, at apartments and a shoe factory, are sowing a feeling of chaos, the report said.
The Iranian officials who spoke to the Times did not provide evidence for their claims and said authorities are not formally accusing Israel, as that would put them in a position of needing to respond.
Publicly, officials have blamed the incidents on a range of causes, including gas leaks, garbage fires, and dilapidated infrastructure. The national gas company has put out figures it says show no increase in gas leaks compared to the number of incidents last year.
Some Iranians have mocked the situation. A photoshopped image circulating on social media showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the uniform of Iran’s national gas company.
Israeli officials declined to comment for the report. However, the Mossad itself appeared happy to ride on the wave of suspicions and fears in Iran.
A Persian-language account on social media platform X purportedly run by the Mossad, which a source in the agency told the Times belongs to the spy organization, has also remarked on the explosions.
One post advised Iranians to burn Esphand, an incense traditionally believed to provide protection against evil spirits and curses. Another post earlier this month remarked, “Explosion after explosion. Someone needs to check what’s going on there. Too many random incidents are happening.”
Last month, Mossad chief David Barnea said that Israel inflicted significant damage on Iran but indicated that Jerusalem needs to continue its operations against the Islamic Republic.
The ongoing chaos followed a 12-day war last month, which began with a sweeping Israeli assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program that Israel said was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.
Iranian authorities have said about 1,000 people were killed.
Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel. The attacks killed 28 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.