Top 5 Most INSANE Israeli Black Ops Missions Ever

Israel’s Military and Espionage Organizations are responsible for some of the world’s boldest and most unbelievable covert missions. The IDF’s Special Forces Units and The Mossad are trained to reach anyone, anywhere, if necessary. Here are the top 5 most insane Israeli Black ops missions of all time:

The Engineer

Yahya Ayyash was the chief bombmaker for the Hamas terrorist organization. He was responsible for building and orchestrating a multitude of suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians during the early 90’s. He was personally responsible for the death of over 90 Israelis. 

In October 1995, the Shin Bet, Israel’s Homeland Security Organization managed to kill him by planting a bomb in his own cellphone. 

They had learned that Ayyash had, on occasion, spent the night in the Gaza City home of Osama Hamad, a childhood friend of his. The Shin Bet had previously had dealings with Kamil Hamad, Osama's uncle.

Kamil Hamad revealed that Ayyash would regularly change cell phones in order to avoid being tracked. The Shin bet proceeded to construct a cell phone with 15 grams of explosives. They had Hamad to switch out Ayyash’s cell phone so they could listen in on Ayyash's conversations. Hamad agreed and switched out the phones. The next morning, the Shin Bet called Ayyash pretending to be his father By answering and giving voice confirmation, Ayyash essentially blew his own head off.

Operation sharp and smooth

During the 2006 2nd Lebanon war the IDF carried out a mission in a hospital in the city of Baalbek, 100 kilometers deep into Lebanon. Hezbollah never dreamed Israel would send over 200 tier 1 operators so deep into Lebanon, undetected.

The hospital was one of several medical facilities that the IDF believed may have been used to treat or hold the two captured soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, after their abduction by Hezbollah the previous month, the incident that triggered the Second Lebanon War. The hospital served as an operations base where Hezbollah planned attacks together with Iranian instructors, confident they couldn’t be reached by the IDF. 

As a hospital, it could not be attacked from the air and the enemy never dreamed that Israel would be able to put operators on the ground in such a tricky location  to infiltrate on foot .

Approximately 200 commandos from Sayeret Matkal and Shaldag fast-roped from helicopters and infiltrated the hospital. While the precise objectives of the raid still remain classified to this day, the IDF killed 10 Hezbollah Terrorists and sent a strong message that they can operate anywhere in Lebanon and they will go anywhere to eliminate their targets.

Operation Spring of Youth

In April 1973 a team of Sayeret Matkal Operators landed in Beirut by boat. Their mission was to eliminate PLO leaders who ordered the massacre of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Ehud Barak, Israel's future prime minister was in charge of one of the hit teams. He was disguised as a female tourist in order to infiltrate the area and he concealed an Uzi and grenades in his dress.

Once all of the teams were at their targets, Barak gave the signal and the operators stormed the apartments, gunned down their targets, and seized critical documents. After the assault, the operators were extracted by Israeli Air Force helicopters and brought back to Israel.

Operation Outside the Box (Operation Orchard)

In 2004 The Mossad picked up on multiple communications between Syria and North Korea, and traced the calls to a desert location in Syria. Contact between North Korea who have nuclear weapons and the Arab world is unusual and was extremely concerning to Israel. 

A few months later, the Mossad had detected a booking for a high ranking Syrian Official in a London hotel and they dispatched at least 10 Agents to London. The team broke into the Syrian Officials hotel room and bugged his laptop. 

When the computer material was examined at Mossad headquarters, officials found blueprints and hundreds of pictures of a Nuclear facility in various stages of construction. The Mossad Immediately brought this to Israel’s prime minister and they decided that Israel would need to carry out an Airstrike and destroy the facility. but before they could do so, they needed to check if the reactor was operational. If it was operational it could cause an environmental catastrophe from nuclear fallout. 

In August 2007, Israeli Operators from Sayeret Matkal covertly raided the suspected nuclear facility and brought nuclear material back to Israel. They were able to confirm the reactor was not yet operational and On September 6th 2007 the Israeli Airforce carried out an Airstrike on the facility and completely destroyed it.

Operation Entebbe

On June 27 1976, Air France Flight 139 departed from Israel, carrying 246 mainly Jewish and Israeli passengers. The flight was hijacked by terrorists and re-routed to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The hostages were held captive by the terrorists and soldiers from the Ugandan Military . The terrorists demanded that Israel release 53 Palestinian terrorist imprisoned in Israel in exchange for the hostages. They stated that if their demands were not met they would kill all of the hostages.

 On the 3rd of July The Israeli cabinet approved a rescue mission. A 29-man assault unit led by Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, the brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu composed entirely of commandos from Sayeret Matkal, was given the primary task of assaulting the terminal and rescuing the hostages.

Israeli transport planes carried the commandos over 4,000 kilometers to Uganda for the rescue operation.

During the operation, Sayeret Matkal successfully killed all of the terrorists and were able to rescue all but 3 of the hostages. Unfortunately During exfil from the terminal, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu was killed by a stray bullet during an exchange of fire with Ugandan Military. The operation is considered to be one of the most successful hostage rescues in history and put  Israel on the map as the world leader in counter terrorism and hostage rescue. 

Do you agree with our list? Let us know in the comment section which Israeli missions you think should have made it.