Israel has intensified strikes on positions linked to Iran’s Basij militia in Tehran, in what appears to be an effort to weaken one of the regime’s main instruments of internal control. According to Israeli statements, regional media reports and social media material reviewed by Euronews’ Persian service, the campaign has focused on checkpoints and other sites associated with the Basij, the paramilitary force tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Reuters has separately reported that Israel has targeted checkpoints run by the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, citing a source familiar with the strategy.
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The apparent aim is not only military, but political. By striking Basij positions, Israel seems to be trying to damage the morale and operational reach of a force long used by the Iranian authorities to suppress dissent. In a televised address on Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was delivering “crushing blows” to both the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, and suggested the campaign was still in its early stages.
Netanyahu also addressed the Iranian public directly, saying that “the moment of freedom is near” and that Israel stood with them. That message has fuelled speculation that Israel hopes the weakening of the Basij could create room for renewed anti-regime demonstrations, though Reuters noted there has so far been no clear sign of organised unrest forcing the leadership to step aside.
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Euronews reported that social media accounts monitored by its Persian team appeared to show ordinary Iranians filming Basij checkpoints and suspected security locations, then posting the footage online. The outlet said such material may have been used as a form of opposition and cited reporting that Israel had been gathering and verifying some targeting intelligence from these videos. Reuters likewise reported that informants on the ground had helped identify checkpoint locations in recent days.
Iranian state media, as cited by Euronews, said several Basij members and other security personnel were killed in Israeli drone strikes on checkpoints and roadblocks in Tehran. The Israeli military has also published aerial footage which it says shows attacks on Basij security positions.
The wider context inside Iran remains highly volatile. Reuters reported this week that Mojtaba Khamenei, recently appointed as Iran’s new supreme leader after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is said by an Iranian official to have been lightly injured but remains active. Questions over his condition and authority have added to uncertainty at the top of the Iranian system.
The Basij forms part of the wider power structure surrounding the Revolutionary Guards, which remain central to Iran’s security response. In separate Reuters reporting, the Israeli military said it would pursue every successor to Iran’s slain supreme leader, underlining the extent to which the conflict has widened beyond conventional military targets. Some of the most dramatic claims in the material you provided — including specific casualty figures from earlier crackdowns, Telegram threats to Basij members and accounts of disguises used to evade strikes — were reported by Euronews but I could not independently verify all of them through other primary reporting.
