Ex-Mossad chiefs speak frankly about taboo subject of assassinations

Published: 28 May 2020

Last updated: 4 March 2024

In rare interviews to mark the 70th anniversary of the organisation’s founding, three former directors shared their views on assassinations as a tool of national security

ONE OF THE MOST sensitive, practically taboo, topics in the Israeli intelligence community is assassinations. Leaders of the Mossad, Shin Bet security service and Military Intelligence are not keen to discuss it publicly.

However, this month we received a rare glimpse into the thinking of three former Mossad chiefs on this controversial subject. The three – Nahum Admoni, Danny Yatom and Tamir Pardo – all granted interviews to the Journal of the Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Centre to mark the 70th anniversary of the Mossad’s founding.

Assassinations can be divided into three groups: assassinations that occur as part of military operations in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Syria and Lebanon; assassinations that are the responsibility of the Shin Bet, such as those that were carried out wholesale, mainly from aircraft, during the second intifada in the West Bank and Gaza; and assassinations attributed to the Mossad, to the military’s Human Intelligence Division and to special units operating outside Israel’s borders.

The latter group includes not a very long list of assassinations attributed to Israel in the Middle East (Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Dubai, Syria), Asia (Malaysia), Africa (Tunisia) or on European soil (Italy, Malta, Norway, France, Cyprus, Greece and more).

It is estimated that Mossad is responsible for the killing of 50 to 60 terrorists in this category, and scientists who worked for enemy countries, abroad. None of them were Israeli citizens.

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