Operation Finale: Kidnapping and Condemnation of Adolf Eichmann (1960)

In the first years of the Mossad’s operation, one of its main targets was the Nazis, with the most typical being the case of Adolf Eichmann.

When in May 1960 the agency learned that the “architect” of the “Final Solution”, responsible for the murder of countless Jews during the Holocaust, was living quietly in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 11 agents arrived there under the utmost secrecy. In fact, most were Holocaust survivors.

After days of surveillance, on the evening of May 11, 1960, two cars were waiting for Eichmann when he got off the bus on his way home from work. One of the agents called his name and when Eichmann turned around he was punched in the face by another agent, causing him to fall to the ground. They then kidnapped him and, after holding him for nine days, finally fled to Israel on an El Al flight, dressed as a crew member.

Two days after his arrival in Israel, then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion publicly announced Eichmann’s arrest, ignoring strong protests from Argentina, and his trial began in Jerusalem on April 11, 1961. He was eventually sentenced to death by hanging.

Operation Wrath of God: revenge for the Munich Massacre (1972)

The Mossad’s most notorious and long-running operation was the retaliation for the “Munich Massacre” by the Palestinian organization “Black September” at the 1972 Olympics, where Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes.

In extreme secrecy, the Mossad organized strikes in Europe and the Middle East, most notably against Mahmoud Hamsari, the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in France.

Using an agent as a journalist, the Mossad lured Hamsari out of his Paris apartment while a team of “technicians” entered and planted a bomb under his office telephone. On December 8, 1972, the Palestinian’s phone rang and when he picked it up, the explosive device was detonated. Hamsari succumbed to his injuries a month later.

Scene from the movie “Munich” by Steven Spielberg. The film deals with the murders of PLO officials who organized the Munich attack.

This was followed by the assassination of Hussein al-Bashir, the alleged leader of “Black September” in Cyprus. This too, of a cinematic dimension, since the Mossad remotely activated a bomb under his bed, completely destroying his room at the Olympic Hotel in Nicosia. One of his associates, Zayed Muhashi, had the same fate, who was tracked down by the Mossad in Athens and killed by an explosion in his hotel room.

Operation Entebbe: Freeing Hijacking Hostages (1976)

On June 27, 1976, Air France Flight AF139 en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, with a stopover in Athens, was hijacked after taking off from Hellinikon Airport, with the hijackers diverting the plane to Entebbe Airport, Uganda and hold the passengers hostage.

For nearly a week, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres argued over whether or not Israel should give in to the hijackers’ demands, so as not to encourage more hijackings in the future. The Mossad began gathering intelligence and finally the solution of airlifting commandos to Entebbe was chosen to free the hostages and bring them to Israel.

Hostages return to Israel from Uganda after being freed by Israeli special forces.

On the evening of 3 July and without having received permission from the Ugandan authorities, Israeli C-130s landed in Entebbe. They immediately unloaded a black Mercedes and some jeeps as an alleged escort for distraction. In the meantime the Israeli commandos headed to the airport building where the hostages were being held. An exchange of fire ensued with the hijackers and airport security. They eventually rescued 93 hostages, while seven of the 10 terrorists and three hostages were killed. The only loss of the Israeli forces, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of the current Prime Minister of Israel.

Operation Moses: Evacuation of Ethiopian Jews (1984-1985)

In the early 1980s conditions were very difficult for the Jewish community in Ethiopia, as the then government had banned Judaism, arrested Jews on false charges of being “Zionist spies” and conscripted children as young as 12 into the army. In addition, a severe famine had driven thousands of Ethiopian Jews to refugee camps in the Sudan, where they were subjected to appalling treatment.

Ethiopian Jews arrive in Israel during Operation Moses to liberate the Ethiopian Jewish community.

So the Mossad began an evacuation process: it found an abandoned resort on the Red Sea shores in Sudan, turned it into a diving and surfing resort, and used it as a cover to transport Ethiopian Jews to Israel by boat. At the same time, there were secret airlifts from deserted fields.

This operation, known as “Moses”, was carried out in cooperation with the CIA and with the tacit approval of the Sudanese regime. By its end, one-third of Ethiopia’s Jews had been successfully transferred to Israel.

Assassination of Imad Mughniyah (2008)

Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah’s head of international operations, was one of the most wanted terrorists for Israel and the US. Thus, Mossad and CIA worked together to put an end to his activity.

On the evening of February 12, 2008, Mughniyah was walking in Damascus. Not far away, a CIA team in the Syrian capital was monitoring his movements.

Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah’s head of international operations, was assassinated by the Mossad in 2008 in Syria.

As Mugnilla approached a parked SUV, a bomb placed in the trunk of the vehicle’s rear detonated, killing him instantly.

The explosive device was activated remotely from Tel Aviv by Mossad agents, who were communicating with agents in Damascus.