Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

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HAFEZ, MUSTAFA ASSASSINATION. In the 1950s Colonel

Mustafa Hafez was the commander of Egyptian intelligence in Gaza.

That was the time when Egypt customarily sent cells of marauding

Arabs (fedayeen) from the Gaza Strip into Israel for the purpose of ter-

rorizing Israeli society by murdering Israelis. Hafez was in charge of

those operations.

In June 1956 the director of Military Intelligence, Major General

Yehoshafat Harkabi, and Colonel Haim Levakovproposed a plan

to assassinate Hafez, which succeeded. Hafez was killed on 12 June

1956 by an explosive device hidden in a book handed to him by an

Egyptian double agent. The agent, who did not know what he was

carrying, was blinded in the blast. Another book bomb was sent the

next day via the East Jerusalem post office to Colonel Salah Mustafa,

the Egyptian military attaché in Amman, who had dispatched infil-

trators via the West Bank to Israel. He opened the package and was

killed by the blast.

In the 1960s mail bombs became a central assassination tool of Israeli

intelligence, especially as part of the Damocles Operation against (for-

mer Nazis) German scientists who were developing a missile program

for Egypt.

HALEVY, EFRAIM (1934– ).A past director of the Mossad. Born in

London, Halevy immigrated to Israel in 1948. In 1956 he graduated

cum laude with a master of laws degree from Hebrew University in

Jerusalem. During his student years, he served as president of the na-

tional students union (1955–1957).

In 1961 Halevy joined the Mossad, starting as a junior case officer

and rising steadily through the organization’s ranks in his 28-year ca-

reer. As a Mossad officer, he was for many years Israel’s leading figure

in contacts with Jordan’s King Hussein, and he played a key role in ne-

gotiating the peace treaty between the two countries signed in late 1994.

In 1996 he was seconded to the Foreign Ministry and served as Israel’s

ambassador to the European Union in Brussels until his appointment to

the Mossad directorship on 5 March 1998. He was then the oldest di-

rector ever appointed. At that time reserve major general Amiram

Levinewas made deputy director of the Mossad for operations.

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