Israel's secret weapon How the Mossad hunts its enemies with spectacular missions
The foreign intelligence service has done important groundwork for Israel's attack. The deployment of agents in the middle of Iran is just the latest in a long series of successful and unsuccessful operations.
14.06.2025, 21:25
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Israel's secret service can look back on a long history of spectacular and sometimes unsuccessful operations.
- Israel's major attack against Iran was reportedly supported and prepared by Mossad agents.
- The latest operation is one of a number of spectacular missions by the Israeli foreign intelligence service.
Israel's major attack against Iran was reportedly supported and prepared by agents of the Mossad foreign intelligence service. They are said to have been deployed deep inside Iran. Among other things, they placed and operated precision weapons and drones in the middle of enemy territory to destroy air defense positions and missile silos. As a result, Israel's fighter jets had a free hand to bomb Iranian military command bunkers and nuclear facilities. The latest operation is one of a number of spectacular missions by Israel's foreign intelligence service.
Argentina, 1960: Abduction of Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann
The abduction of German Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann by the Israeli secret service is legendary. Mossad spies tracked down Eichmann, who was one of the main perpetrators of the deportation and murder of European Jews, in Argentina in 1960. They overpower him on the street in Buenos Aires. Eichmann was taken by plane to Israel unnoticed, where he was sentenced to death and executed in 1962.
1996: Explosives on Jihia Ajasch's cell phone
In January 1996, the Israeli secret service kills Hamas military chief and bomb maker Jihia Ajash with explosives in his cell phone, which are detonated remotely. Israel was the first country - as far as is known - to use a communication device for an assassination attempt, wrote Israeli intelligence expert Ronen Bergman.
Jordan, 1997: Failed attack on Chaled Mashaal
The attempted assassination of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, now a kind of "foreign minister" of the Islamist organization, in September 1997 is considered one of the Mossad's biggest failures. Israeli agents attempt to spray Mashaal with a deadly poison in the Jordanian capital Amman. King Hussein reacts so indignantly to the poison attack that he forces Benjamin Netanyahu, then and now head of government, to have an antidote delivered to save Mashaal.
In order to free the two agents arrested in the attack from Jordanian custody, Israel is forced to release the spiritual Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin. In 2004, he dies in a targeted Israeli air strike.
Switzerland, 1998: Mossad agents caught trying to eavesdrop
In February 1998, five agents were caught trying to install bugging equipment in a residential building on the outskirts of Bern. The police arrested one man and released four after checking their false passports. The arrested agent gets off with a suspended sentence. The incident played a key role in the resignation of the then head of the Mossad, Danny Jatom.
Dubai, 2010: Killing of Hamas military leader Mahmud al-Mabhuh
In January 2010, Hamas military leader Mahmoud al-Mabhuh is killed in his hotel room in Dubai. He is first sedated with medication and then suffocated. The Israeli media named al-Mabhuh as the mastermind behind the abduction and murder of Israeli soldiers in 1989. The Arab authorities suspected 27 people who had entered the country with forged European passports and were said to have left Dubai immediately after the crime. Around a month later, Dubai's police chief accused the Mossad, while Israel denied any involvement.
Iran, 2020: Killing of a top Iranian nuclear scientist
In November 2020, Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fachrisadeh was fatally shot in his car in a suburb of Tehran. Israel has not yet claimed responsibility for the death of the head of the Department of Research and Technological Innovation at the Iranian Ministry of Defense. It also remains unclear whether Fachrisadeh was shot by physical assassins or a remote-controlled weapon. At the time, US government agencies assumed Israeli authorship. For many, the signature of the Mossad is also unmistakable here.
Iran, 2024: Killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya
In July 2024, Hamas foreign leader Ismail Haniya is on a visit to the Iranian capital Tehran to attend the swearing-in of the new Iranian President Massud Peseshkian. A few hours later, Haniya is killed in an attack at a residence in the north of the capital. Two months later, Israel admits that the Mossad killed Hanija with a remotely detonated bomb. The foreign chief is the highest-ranking Hamas leader to be killed since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Lebanon, 2024: Manipulated pagers kill Hezbollah people
In September 2024, the pagers and handheld radios of thousands of functionaries of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Lebanon explode. 37 people are killed, more than 3,000 are injured. The Mossad had prepared the operation meticulously and for a long time. The devices produced in Taiwan were secretly diverted to Israel via an international network of Mossad front companies before they reached Lebanon. In Israel, Mossad specialists installed the small explosives in the devices. Years later, Israel's government gave the order to detonate them.
