Iranian official claims Israel used 'the occult and supernatural spirits' during 12-day war

Abdollah Ganji, former editor of the IRGC-linked newspaper Javan, told his 150,000 followers on X that a “strange phenomenon” had taken place during the 12-day war.

A senior Iranian official claims that Israel deployed "the occult and supernatural spirits" during its war with Iran, Iran International reported on Friday.

Abdollah Ganji, former editor of the IRGC-linked newspaper Javan, told his 150,000 followers on X/Twitter on Wednesday that a “strange phenomenon” had taken place during the 12-day war.

"After the recent war, a few sheets of paper were found on the streets of Tehran containing talismans with Jewish symbols," he wrote. "In the first year of the Gaza war, news had also leaked about Netanyahu meeting with occult specialists.

"A few years ago, the Supreme Leader had stated that hostile countries and Western and Hebrew intelligence services use occult sciences and jinn entities for espionage."

The Mossad's official X account in Farsi responded to Ganji's post on Tuesday.

"Using drugs and talking to the jinn are not desirable traits for someone leading a country," they wrote.

Waleed Gadban, Israel's Political Advisor to the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, reposted the Mossad's X post, with the caption in Farsi, "Jinn, jinn are everywhere," with a ghost emoji at the end.

What are jinn?

Jinn are supernatural beings from the pre-Islamic Arabian religion and Islamic mythology. They are believed to be made of smokeless fire, yet unseen to the human eye, according to Britannica.

Jinn are also said to have the capability of assuming different forms and exercising extraordinary powers.

They were first mentioned in the Quran and are conceptualized in Islam "as creatures parallel to human beings who are capable of choosing between good and evil and must thus face eventual salvation or damnation," Britannica explained.