Israel’s intelligence services hacked a popular Iranian prayer app on Saturday to send push notifications urging military and security personnel to defect and join a fight to “liberate” the country, according to people familiar with the operation and screenshots shared online.
The BadeSaba Calendar app, which provides prayer times and religious reminders and has more than 5 million downloads on Google’s Play Store, began delivering unusual alerts mid-morning as missiles and drones struck targets in Iran. Between 9:52am and 10:14am Tehran time, users reported receiving at least three notifications in Persian that appeared tailored to members of the armed forces and other regime security branches.
At 9:52am, phones lit up with the message: “Help Has Arrived.” A second alert at 10:02am promised “amnesty for anyone who takes up arms against the regime,” directly appealing to soldiers and paramilitary personnel to turn on their commanders, according to translations shared by Iranian activists. The final notification at 10:14am read: “Lay down your weapons or join the forces of liberation. For a free Iran.”
Cybersecurity researchers and Western officials say the timing and message content strongly suggest an Israeli psychological operation designed to rattle Iran’s security forces and deepen cracks within the regime, though Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility. Experts note that compromising a trusted religious app allowed the attackers to bypass state media and reach users directly in their most intimate digital space, turning a routine tool of daily worship into a channel for wartime propaganda. Iranian authorities have not fully explained the breach but state-linked media have acknowledged “hostile cyber activity” targeting news outlets and other platforms alongside the airstrikes.
