Mossad pushes for Iran strike to stop Houthi attacks

Mossad chief David Barnea is reportedly pressing for an attack on Iran, as former agents say exploding pagers that targeted Hezbollah was the tipping point of the war with the terror group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), with Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defence Forces Herzi Halevi (R).

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency is reportedly pressing Jerusalem for a direct strike on Iran to stop the continued Houthi attacks on Israel as the Israeli Defence Forces consider targeting the rebel group’s leaders.

As the Iran backed group fired more drones and missiles at Israel on Wednesday (local time), the Haaretz newspaper reports that Mossad chief David Barnea has told the country’s leaders an attack on Iran, which funds and arms the Houthis, is the best way to halt the strikes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz are planning to expand their attacks on the Houthis, including assassinating their leaders, with the Israeli media reporting that the US supports escalated strikes.

However Ynet TV reports that Israel will wait until Donald Trump takes office on January 20 before making any significant moves in Yemen.

A source told the broadcaster: “The Houthis will pay a heavy price, there will be a ratcheting up of Israeli attacks.

“But it’s nothing compared to what will happen once Trump enters office. The Americans are planning to impose an embargo on them and sanctions.”

Earlier this week, Mr Katz admitted that Israel was behind the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

Mossad agents also described publicly how they had organised the attack on Hezbollah with exploding pagers, telling CBS the attack “broke” the Lebanon terror group’s commander Hassan Nasrallah.

In an extraordinary interview with CBS, two retired agents said the operation in Lebanon and Syria, which killed at least 24 people and injured scores more, was the tipping point of the war.

One of the agents told CBS the effect on Nasrallah, who saw pagers blow up Hezbollah fighters next to him, was profound.

“If you look at his eyes, he was defeated,” the agent, who called himself Gabriel said. “He’s already lost the war. And his soldier look at him during that speech. And they saw a broken leader.”

Gabriel said the aim of the operation was to wound rather than kill because injured fighters took up more resources.

“If he just dead, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts,” he said. “And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East.”

Describing the 10 years-long operation to trick Hezbollah into buying the pagers, Gabriel compared it to the Truman Show, the 1998 movie about a man who has no clue that he is living in a false world.

“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” he said. “We make like ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100 per cent kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything,” he said.

The other agent, Michael, added: “We create a pretend world. We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors, and the world is our stage.”

The Houthis said they had fired a ballistic missile and two drones at Israel in its latest attack, days after an attack on Tel Aviv wounded 16 people.

Israel’s military said it intercepted the missile and that one drone “fell in an open area” after sirens sounded in the country’s south, near the Gaza Strip.

“The UAV (drone) force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two military operations” targeting Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv and the southern city of Ashkelon, a Houthi military statement said.

The missile was also aimed at the Tel Aviv area, the Houthis announced earlier. The Israelis said it was shot down before it entered Israeli territory.

A Houthi military statement said the attack was carried out “using a hypersonic ballistic missile, type Palestine 2”.

With AFP