The recent attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, which killed 32 people and wounded thousands, were a significant achievement for Israel’s spy agency. Israel has a history of carrying out audacious covert operations, targeting enemies through a combination of high-tech tools and traditional spycraft. These operations have included letter bombs, poison, booby traps, armed drones, and artificial intelligence-assisted robotic machine guns.
Israel’s pursuit of its adversaries has been relentless, with targeted killings seen as a way to deter attacks, sow fear, and seek revenge. However, these actions have raised ethical dilemmas and often produced only short-term successes. For example, despite the killing of several nuclear scientists, Iran’s nuclear program is closer to building a bomb than ever.
Past Israeli intelligence operations have included capturing Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, targeting German scientists in Egypt with letter bombs, and launching Operation Wrath of God in response to the Munich Olympics massacre. Some operations have failed or resulted in tragic mistakes, like the killing of a Moroccan waiter mistaken for a Palestinian terrorist or the elaborate plot to kill Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.
The use of armed drones, motorcyclists with magnetized bombs, and AI-assisted machine guns has expanded the scope of Israel’s assassination operations. Recent drone strikes have targeted senior Hamas and Hezbollah figures, Iranian generals in Syria, and even Hamas politicians in Tehran. Mossad has vowed to continue hunting down those responsible for the recent attacks on Israel, regardless of where they are located.
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