From exploding pagers to cyber warfare: Israel’s long history of alleged secret operations
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From exploding Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies to a cyber attack on an Iranian nuclear facility, Israel is suspected of carrying out a number of secretive operations over the years.
Israel rarely takes responsibility for such attacks – its military declined to comment on the device blasts in Lebanon – but a long pattern of sophisticated incidents has nonetheless unfolded.
As the fallout from this week’s attacks continues to reverberate around the Middle East, Sky News looks at some of the other notable operations over the last six decades where Israeli involvement has been confirmed or suspected.
Follow latest: Hand-held radios explode in Lebanon
2021: Attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility
In April 2021, Iran blamed Israel for what it said was an attack on one of its underground nuclear facilities.
Israel did not claim responsibility for it, but the country’s media widely reported that the country had orchestrated a devastating cyber attack that caused a blackout at Natanz and damaged its centrifuges (used for separating uranium isotopes).
A former Iranian official at the time said the assault set off a fire while a spokesman mentioned a “possible minor explosion”.
2020: Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
An Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in Iran by a remote-controlled machine gun mounted on a car.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was travelling in a bulletproof vehicle alongside three security personnel vehicles when he heard what sounded like bullets hitting his car.
After he reportedly left the vehicle, a Nissan fitted with a remote-controlled machine gun then opened fire, killing him.
The scene of the attack on Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020. Pic: IRIB/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
2010: Stuxnet
A powerful computer worm widely thought to have been designed by US and Israeli intelligence, Stuxnet is believed to have disabled a key part of the Iranian nuclear programme.
Discovered in 2010, Stuxnet was designed to destroy the centrifuges Iran used to enrich uranium as part of its weapons programme.
It is reported the worm was delivered to the Natanz facility on a thumb drive by an Iranian double agent working for Israel.
2010: Killing of Mahmoud al Mabhouh
Mahmoud al Mabhouh, a top Hamas operative, was killed in a Dubai hotel room in an operation attributed to the Mossad spy agency but never acknowledged by Israel.
Many of the 26 supposed assassins were caught on camera disguised as tourists.
Mahmoud al Mabhouh. Pic: News Pictures/Mcp/Shutterstock
Read more:
What is Hezbollah and how powerful is its military?
The Budapest firm linked to explosive pagers
2000: Samih Malabi
A Fatah activist from the Kalandia refugee camp outside Ramallah was killed when a booby-trapped mobile phone exploded next to his head.
1997: Attempted assassination of Hamas leader
Mossad agents tried to kill the then head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, in Amman, Jordan.
Two agents entered Jordan using fake Canadian passports and poisoned Mashaal by placing a device near his ear.
Khaled Meshaal. Pic: AP
They were captured shortly afterwards and Jordan’s king threatened to void a still-fresh peace accord if Mashaal died. Israel ultimately dispatched an antidote, and the Israeli agents were returned home.
1996: Yahya Ayyash
Yahya Ayyash, nicknamed the “engineer” for his mastery in building bombs for Hamas, was killed by answering a rigged phone in Gaza.
His assassination triggered a series of deadly bus bombings in Israel.
The coffin of Yahya Ayyash was carried into a mosque for funeral services in 1996. Pic: Reuters
1972: Bassam Abu Sharif
He was injured in Beirut when he opened a package containing a book implanted with a bomb which exploded.
He was the spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Bassam Abu Sharif. Pic: Reuters
He survived but lost several fingers, was left deaf in one ear and blind in one eye.
1972: Mahmoud Hamshari
A representative from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was killed in Paris in 1972 when a bomb was planted under a telephone and remotely detonated.
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1960: Adolf Eichmann
Perhaps the most famous operation by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service ever, in 1960 Israeli spies apprehended Adolf Eichmann.
The German Nazi official was one of the major organisers of the Holocaust.
Adolf Eichmann. Pic: AP
He had been captured by Allied forces in 1945 but escaped and settled in Argentina before ultimately being tracked down by Mossad.
