Not just pagers and walkie talkies: Mossad's most sensational operations, from Munich to Hanyeh
The news of the explosion of hundreds of 'pagers' worn by Hezbollah members brings to mind some of the major operations conducted by Israeli intelligence services
3' min read
3' min read
Israel and its security services - the Mossad and the Shin Bet - have a long history of striking back at their enemies by an incredible variety of means. The news of these hours, with the explosion of hundreds of "pagers" worn by members of Hezbollah who were wounded - and in more than a dozen cases killed - in addition to causing uproar has brought to mind some of the major operations carried out by the Israeli secret services.
The Revenge for Munich
.The best known is probably the legendary 'Wrath of God' operation that led to the elimination of PLO leaders held responsible for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. On that occasion, Mahmud Hamshari, PLO representative in France, was killed by the detonation of his telephone where an explosive charge had previously been placed by a Mossad agent posing as a journalist.
In 1988 it was the turn of Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir known as Abu Jihad, one of the founders of Fatah, right-hand man of the Palestinian rais Yasser Arafat and responsible for numerous attacks in Israel. He was killed on 16 April of that year in his home in Tunis in an operation by Israeli commandos who arrived from the sea. Commanding the whole action was Ehud Barak, the future prime minister of Israel.
Hamas leaders
In 1996, it was the turn of Yahya Abd al Latif Ayyash known as 'the engineer' and a prominent member of Hamas, responsible for refining the technique of suicide bombers blowing themselves up in Israel. Ayyash was eliminated by the Shin Bet - which, however, has never explicitly confirmed this - on 5 January 1996 with a charge of Rdx (nitroamine) placed in his mobile phone and triggered from an Israeli post. Hamas gave its name to the Ayyash-250 rockets fired at Israel.
In 2010, precisely on 19 January, in a controversial operation attributed to the Mossad, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, co-founder of the Qassam Brigades, armed arm of Hamas, was killed in a Dubai hotel. Accused of kidnapping and killing two Israeli soldiers in 1989 and of buying weapons from Iran for Gaza, al-Mabhouh was caught up with and taken out by a team of 26 men who arrived from different countries in Europe with forged passports. This had strong repercussions with Great Britain, Australia and Ireland who had discovered that some of their passports had been forged by Israel for its agents.
