Aliza Magen, who dedicated approximately 40 years to the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, passed away on April 14 in Jerusalem at the age of 87. Her death was confirmed by a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office.
Mrs. Magen began her career at the Mossad immediately after completing her mandatory military service and remained with the agency throughout her professional life. She spent over two decades working undercover in various roles across Europe, focusing on agent management and intelligence collection.
Throughout her tenure, she was involved in significant operations, many of which remain classified. Notably, she was fluent in German and participated in a long-term initiative aimed at undermining, assassinating, or recruiting German scientists who were developing missiles for Egypt, posing a potential threat to Israel.
Based in Austria, she successfully recruited a former high-ranking Nazi officer to serve as a Mossad asset. In the 1970s, she took part in Operation Wrath of God, a campaign to locate and eliminate those responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack that resulted in the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches.
Returning to Israel in the early 1980s, Mrs. Magen served as the deputy head of the Mossad’s Tzomet division, overseeing agents and intelligence operations. She later managed the agency’s administrative division and operations center.
As she was preparing for retirement in 1990, Shabtai Shavit, the new Mossad director, appointed her as his deputy, making her the highest-ranking woman in the agency’s history. Although she had no desire to lead the Mossad, her reputation led to her retention by Shavit’s successor, Danny Yatom, in 1996.
Yatom resigned in 1998 following a failed operation, yet Mrs. Magen remained in her position for several months under the subsequent director, Efraim Halevy, who praised her as one of the most respected intelligence officers.
Born on July 5, 1937, in Jerusalem during the British Mandate, Mrs. Magen was the daughter of German Jews who fled the Nazis. She was multilingual, speaking German, Hebrew, and English. After joining the Mossad in 1958, she took notes during the trial of Adolf Eichmann, which garnered the attention of then-Mossad director Isser Harel, facilitating her rise within the agency.
Her extensive operations included persuading an Iraqi fighter pilot to defect to Israel and leading the search for Yossele Schumacher, a Soviet-Israeli boy abducted by his grandparents' friends. This case became a significant scandal in Israel, highlighting societal rifts.
Mrs. Magen married Avraham Magen in 1973, who passed away in 2011. She is survived by no immediate family members.
For most of her career, Mrs. Magen's contributions to the Mossad were kept secret, only becoming public after her promotion to deputy. She later discussed the challenges and advantages of being a woman in intelligence, noting the difficulties women face in advancing due to the demands of undercover assignments and family responsibilities.
She acknowledged that women agents often have an easier time working undercover, as they are less likely to raise suspicion. In a 2018 interview, she recounted an instance where she successfully observed a location by posing as a customer in a store, a tactic she believed would be more difficult for a man to execute.