Mossad intelligence agency

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has orders to hunt down and kill the top leadership of Hamas anywhere in the world following the October 7 attack which killed 1,200 people
         

Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks: Known as Mossad - Hebrew for "Institute" - responsible for intelligence collection, covert action and counterterrorism
                             
Mossad HQ: Hadar Dafna building (above) on King Saul Boulevard, Tel Aviv

1949: Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, establishes Mossad forerunner, Central Institute for Coordination

1962: Mossad “snatch team” abducts Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. Eichmann is tried and executed in Israel

1997: Aliza Magen-Halevi becomes first woman appointed as Mossad’s deputy director

Nov 27, 2020: Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh – “father of Iran’s atomic bomb” – assassinated near Tehran

May 2021: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu names David Barnea (left) as Mossad director, replacing Joseph Cohen

Nov 23, 2023: Netanyahu (above) orders Mossad to assassinate top leadership of Hamas “wherever they are”

Structure of Mossad: Around 1,200 personnel, including 30 to 40 case officers, or katsas.
In addition, there are tens of thousands of sayanim – unpaid civilians, loyal to Israel – recruited by katsas. Israeli students, known as bodlim, are also used as helpers

Tzomet: Mossad’s largest department, responsible for locating, recruiting and handling foreign agents. Division led by Barnea from 2013 to 2019
   
Caesarea: Most secretive unit conducts special operations inside Arab countries. Kidon – “bayonet” – task force specialises in sabotage and assassination

Jan 2, 2024: Saleh al-Arouri, (right) deputy political leader of Hamas, killed in drone strike in Beirut with six other Hamas members
            

Sources: JNS, Mossad, Washington Report 
Pictures: Avshalom Sassoni, Getty Images 
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