Iranian Officials Fear Israeli Sabotage In Spate Of Mystery Fires, Explosions

A month after the Trump-declared ceasefire between Iran and Israel which ended the 12-day war, officials in Iran are increasingly concerned that Israeli intelligence may be engaged in covert sabotage operations on Iranian soil.

Iran has for over two weeks been experiencing a wave of unexplained fires and explosions, occurring almost daily, and sometimes multiple times a day. While Iranian authorities have officially publicly blamed these incidents on outdated gas infrastructure, industrial accidents involving improper handling of gas containers, or faulty water heaters and electrical wiring, many within Iran’s leadership privately suspect Israeli involvement, according to The New York Times.

“For more than two weeks, mysterious explosions and fires have erupted across Iran, setting ablaze apartment complexes and oil refineries, a road outside a major airport and even a shoe factory,” the Times report begins.

The issue of ageing infrastructure, also after years of US-led sanctions, has been widely blamed – but “in private, three Iranian officials, including a member of the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said they believed that many of them were acts of sabotage.”

For another example offered in the Times:

Publicly, Iran has sought to explain away the fires. In some cases, such as the blaze in northeast Iran near Mashhad International Airport, Iranian officials said they were conducting “controlled burning of weeds,” and they attributed a fire in Tehran to a garbage fire.

Yet another strange occurrence involved explosion in an empty residential building in Tehran which injured seven people; however, follow-up official reports from state media and the Tehran Fire Department kept hidden the identities of the injured. This raised questions: was it a covert targeted attack on government or military officials?

Other recent fires in Tehran have just been written off in state sources as typical gas explosions or gas-related accidents. The city’s fire department has referenced “worn-out equipment, the use of substandard gas appliances and disregard for safety principles” – in recent instances.

And for further examples which seem straight out of a Hollywood spy thriller:

In Qom, one apartment building looked as if a bomb had ripped through it. Walls of a first-floor unit were brought down, their windows shattered. A yellow taxi parked on the street was crushed under rubble, according to videos of the blast published on social media and BBC Persian. The force of the blast, which injured seven people, covered the entire surrounding block in debris.

The unit that exploded, two of the Iranian officials told The New York Times, appeared to have been rented by operatives who had left the building after turning on the stove and oven gas, as if to deliberately spark a blaze.

Another potentially similar case was an explosion in a high-rise compound in Tehran, which offers discounted housing to employees of the judiciary. The explosion blew out walls and windows. The three Iranian officials said they believed that saboteurs might have wanted to stoke panic among judges and prosecutors that they could be targeted, similar to the way Israel previously attacked scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program.

Iranian citizens who live in central Iran in the vicinity of missile bases and nuclear facilities are feeling “scared and paranoid” as a result of both the recent war and the spate of mystery explosions.

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Five blasts and fires across Iran’s four provinces in just 9 days:

14 Jul – Explosion at Qom residential complex
14 Jul – Fire on Enghelab St, Tehran
19 Jul – Abadan Oil Refinery blaze
20 Jul –… pic.twitter.com/DE5NcnNtSx

— Iran & Afghanistan Monitor (@WarMonitorlive) July 23, 2025

Some believe these are Israeli-sponsored operations aimed at dialing up the pressure on Iranian leadership, even as the ceasefire holds.

It is now well-documented that many of the Iranian scientists and military officials killed last month were assassinated in operations conducted from within Iran. As Israel sent warplanes over the skies, intelligence ground ops were unleashed, involving car bombings, drone attacks, and sabotage bombings.

Wednesday has seen another fire breaking out in central Iran, reportedly at Isfahan University of Technology…

Footage shared on social media shows a fire on Wednesday at Isfahan University of Technology in central Iran. Some local media attributed the incident to a power fluctuation. Authorities have not confirmed the cause.pic.twitter.com/RL6zXZFpie

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) July 23, 2025

This doesn’t mean these operations were done directly by Israeli officers, instead it’s believed that Mossad has a network of Iranian assets, particularly among the outlawed People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) – which is currently based in Europe and has long sought to topple the Islamic Republic.

The MEK has also long enjoyed the political backing of powerful US officials, and is known have conducted assassinations of Iranian figures in the past. Some MEK members are Iranian citizens, which would allow them ease of getting in and out of the country – something Israelis could not do.