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Six times Israeli intelligence shocked its enemies with covert operations

Six times Israeli intelligence shocked its enemies with covert operations

Pagers and walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon in two attacks targeting Hezbollah this week, killing 32 people and wounding thousands. The innovative attack, widely believed to have been orchestrated by Israel, is just the latest example of how the country’s intelligence services are bringing spy-novel plots to life.

Although Israel and its national intelligence agency, the Mossad, rarely take credit for covert operations, reports from the field demonstrate that the Jewish state was almost certainly behind every attack that resulted in a famous victory.

Here are six times Israel used covert operations and innovative technology to win against its rivals.

This screenshot shows a walkie-talkie that exploded inside a house, in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo)

Explosive devices in Lebanon — September 17-18, 2024

Pagers and other communications devices belonging to Hezbollah exploded simultaneously in two attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. that Israel may have placed explosives in the devices during a three-month waiting period following Hezbollah’s order.

When recovering pagers that did not explode during the attacks, Lebanese authorities found inside 1 to 3 grams of pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a powerful explosive compound, according to Al Jazeera.

Hezbollah fighters carry the coffins of four comrades killed Tuesday after their mobile pagers exploded, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Later in the week, senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, who played a “leading” role in the 1983 bombings of the US embassy in Beirut, was killed in a targeted strike in Lebanon, the Israeli military confirmed.

Bombing of Hamas leader in Iranian guesthouse — August 1, 2024

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Iran for the presidential inauguration of Massoud Pezeshkian. Intelligence knew that he was staying at a private guesthouse in the Iranian capital, Tehran, which was part of a larger complex and guarded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

After Haniyeh returned to his room, a bomb was detonated remotely, killing Haniyeh and a bodyguard outside his room. The bomb was smuggled in in June, two months before the explosion, according to a police report. The New York Times investigation.

FILE – Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a news briefing after meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Tehran, Iran, March 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Attack on Iranian underground nuclear facility — April 12, 2021

An apparent Israeli cyberattack caused explosions and a power outage at a nuclear enrichment plant in Natanz, Iran, hours after workers announced that new centrifuges, machines crucial to nuclear development, were up and running.

The attack targeted the facility’s power supply, which could be catastrophic because centrifuges need a balanced and constant supply of energy to remain stabilized.

It is unclear whether the attack was caused by physical sabotage, such as the insertion of an encrypted USB drive, or by a cyberattack that disrupted the centrifuges. Iran has downplayed the incident, choosing not to reveal the origin of the attack.

In this April 17, 2021, image from a video broadcast by state television, Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), several centrifuges line the damaged room on Sunday, April 11, 2021, at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, about 200 miles (322 km) south of the capital Tehran, Iran. (IRIB via AP, file)

AI gun used to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientist — November 27, 2020

In a highly coordinated attack, Iranian agents working for the Israeli Mossad assassinated Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh using a computer-controlled sniper in an entirely different region.

Fakhrizadeh was warned of an assassination plot on the morning of the attack before he left his vacation home with his wife, according to the Israel’s TimeBut he eventually decided to travel anyway. Fakhrizadeh was to travel through Absard, Iran, a city east of Tehran, where the Mossad had been working on an apparently abandoned truck.

FILE – In this photo released by the Iranian Defense Ministry’s official website, military personnel stand near the flag-draped coffin of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a scientist killed Friday, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Nov. 30, 2020. (Iranian Defense Ministry via AP, File)

The truck was equipped with a uniquely designed precision machine gun, capable of firing 600 rounds per minute. The sniper was equipped with multiple cameras and was controlled by a computer located more than 1,600 kilometers away. No one else was injured in the shooting, including Fakhrizadeh’s wife.

The attack was the result of close collaboration between Mossad and senior U.S. officials, including former President Donald Trump, the report said. The New York Times.

Collaboration with the United States for the Stuxnet cyberattack — 2010

Stuxnet, a cyberweapon developed under the Bush administration, was discovered online in 2010, prompting Obama to order its use in covert operations. The weapon was later developed by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies with the goal of using it to delay other countries’ nuclear development, the report said. OSC.

Stuxnet used malware to covertly infiltrate and damage computer systems, making the incident appear to be a case of incompetence rather than an outright computer failure. The attack occurred in 2010, destroying more than 10 percent of Iran’s 9,000 centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear facility, the report said. The Washington Post.

President Barack Obama gives a news conference at the end of the NATO summit in Lisbon, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

Israel Creates Resort on Sudanese Coast to Bring Jews to Jerusalem — 1980s

In the 1970s, Israel began receiving numerous reports from Israeli-Ethiopian contacts that political tensions in Ethiopia were becoming dangerous for Jews.

The Mossad agency discovered an abandoned Italian resort on the eastern Red Sea coast of Sudan and saw potential for bringing Jews to Jerusalem.

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Undercover Mossad agents posing as businessmen and enthusiastic scuba divers excited the Sudanese government into believing that tourists would flock to the resort. Using real brochures and meeting real vacationers, the Mossad agents ran a business while rescuing Ethiopian Jews.

During the 1980s, the Mossad secretly rescued about 8,000 Jews and led a mass exodus from Ethiopia to Jerusalem.