Here are top five mind-blowing acts attributed to Mossad.
Operation Finale
In 1960, Israeli agents abducted Adolf Eichmann, a former SS officer responsible for deporting Jews to Nazi extermination camps, from Argentina, where he had been living under the name Ricardo Klement since 1950. After Germany’s defeat in WWII, Eichmann was detained by Allied forces on three occasions but managed to escape each time.
Adolf Eichmann, former Gestapo officer who is on trial, August 8, 1961 in Jerusalem for World War II crimes, takes notes as Israel's chief prosecutor sums up the case against him.
© AP Photo
Mossad discovered his whereabouts through a former concentration camp prisoner. After confirming his identity, a 30-person Mossad team, which included Holocaust survivors, captured Eichmann on a silent Buenos Aires street, sedated him and smuggled him to Israel for a public trial. He was found guilty and hanged in 1962.
Operation Diamond
Between 1963 and 1966, Mossad sought to steal the USSR's advanced MiG-21 fighter jet, a highly formidable aircraft. Mossad convinced Iraqi pilot Munir Redfa to defect with his MiG-21 to Israel in 1966, offering $1 million and Israeli citizenship. Despite gaining access to the jet, learning its secrets did not significantly aid the West, and the MiG-21 remained effective during the Vietnam and Arab wars.
Eli Cohen
Between 1961 and 1965, Israeli spy Eli Cohen, using the alias Kamel Amin Thabet, infiltrated Syria's political and military elite. Posing as a businessman returning from Argentina, Cohen gathered intelligence critical to Israel's success in the 1967 Six Day War. In 1965, Syrian officials, aided by Soviet counter-intelligence, detected Cohen's radio transmissions, leading to his capture and execution for espionage.
Eli Cohen with the entourage of Syrian President Amin Hafiz (1963-1966)
© Albert Abraham Cohen
Botched Hit
On September 25, 1997 Mossad agents attempted to assassinate Khaled Meshaal, a Palestinian political leader of the Hamas movement, in Jordan. One Mossad agent was to spray him with poison while the other was to disguise it as an accident by simultaneously opening a can with soda.
The poison was strong enough to kill Meshaal through skin contact within hours. But the operation went wrong and caused a diplomatic incident with Jordan. Jordanian King Hussein was furious because of extraterritorial killing attempt on the kingdom's soil. To calm tensions, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to provide an antidote for Meshaal and liberate Hamas' spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.
Hamas Commander al-Mabhouh
On 19 January 2010, Mossad agents posing as tourists assassinated Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. They entered his hotel room, paralyzed him with poison and left him to die. lthough it initially appeared to be a natural death, Dubai police identified 33 suspects.
Eventually only one was arrested - Uri Brodsky, who was fined for providing a forged passport. The use of European passports sparked a diplomatic crisis between Israel and several countries. This extraterritorial killing worsened Israel-Palestinian tensions without halting hostilities.