Ex-deputy director of the Mossad to three chiefs, Aliza Magen, passed away on Monday at the age of 88.
She was the highest-ranking female to have ever served in the spy agency.
During her years in the organization, “Magen was involved in hundreds of intelligence activities and significant operations, and served in a variety of command positions both in Israel and abroad,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on behalf of the agency.
“Aliza was one of the pillars of the Mossad and left her mark on generations of Mossad personnel who were trained according to her legacy and values,” the statement read.
Magen was born in Jerusalem and joined the intelligence agency when she was 23 years old. She participated in operations including Operation Bayonet (Operation Wrath of God in Hebrew), in which the Mossad assassinated Palestinian terrorists who took part in the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
In 1990, she was promoted to the deputy director role; she served in the post under Mossad directors Shabtai Shavit, Efraim Halevy and Danny Yatom until her retirement in 1999.
Current Mossad director David Barnea, along with present and former Mossad staff, expressed deep sorrow over Magen’s death.
The “Lady in the shadows” was a “respected, trailblazing and dedicated commander, who devoted her life to the security of Israel and its citizens,” the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office continued.
