Iran blames Israel for hacking state TV; street protest messages, hair cutting visuals aired

Screen capture from video of an interruption by hackers to Iran's state television network broadcast showing hair cutting visuals of women. (Screengrab/X)

The Iranian media on Wednesday claimed that Israel briefly hacked the state television broadcast, airing footage of women’s protests and urging people to take to the streets, according to a report by The Times of Israel.

The state TV aired a message that called on people to take to the streets.

Media reports suggested that the hack was carried out with the help of satellites, suggesting that the message appeared only on screens receiving the channel via the satellite.

A video, now being widely shared on social media, showed a TV screen inside what appears to be a home, displaying the chaos on the streets of Iran. Women in the video could be seen chopping their hair using a pair of scissors.

Happening now 🚨
Iranian state TV has been hacked, taking a break from its regular propaganda programming to broadcast iconic scenes from the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising. #WomanLifeFreedom #زن_زندگی_آزادی @KasraAarabi pic.twitter.com/eT1AEfQxo6

— Jonathan Harounoff (@JonathanHaroun1) June 18, 2025

On its Telegram channel, the Hamshahri daily newspaper shared a video of the brief disruption with a text saying “hackers infiltrated state television and broadcast a call asking people to take to the streets," Times of Israel reported.

Iran’s state television later warned viewers that this was “due to cyberattacks carried out by the Zionist enemy that is disrupting the satellite transmission.”

Israel’s United Nations spokesperson Jonathan Harounoff also shared a clip of the television disruption. The clip apparently contained footage from 2022 during mass protests against the government over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman held by the country’s morality police.

Israel-Iran War

Last week, Israel launched a campaign of airstrikes in Iran to decimate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Iran responded with a barrage of airstrikes.

Iran and Israel traded further air attacks on Thursday, while US President Donald Trump kept the world guessing about whether the United States would join Israel’s bombardment of Iranian nuclear facilities.

A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival has wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of people, while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed two dozen civilians in Israel.