Israel PM formally appoints new Mossad chief

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 12 formally appointed a new chief of the country’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad.

Major-General Roman Gofman, an army officer with no prior intelligence background, will assume the role on June 2, 2026, when the current Mossad director, David Barnea, completes his five-year term.

Mr Netanyahu had selected Mr Gofman for the position in December, with the appointment receiving formal approval on April 12.

Born in Belarus in 1976, Mr Gofman immigrated to Israel at the age of 14. He enlisted in the military’s armoured corps in 1995 and went on to build a lengthy career in the army.

At the start of the Gaza war triggered by Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Mr Gofman was a commander of the national infantry training centre.

He was seriously wounded on Oct 7 in clashes with Hamas militants in Sderot, a city in southern Israel near the Gaza border.

Mr Gofman later joined Mr Netanyahu’s office in April 2024 and is seen as being supportive of Mr Netanyahu’s nationalist ideas.

Though he does not wear a yarmulke as practicing religious Jews do, Mr Gofman studied at the Ely yeshiva, a Jewish religious school located in a settlement of the occupied West Bank and known for its right-wing religious Zionist position.

Considered one of the best intelligence services in the world, the Mossad escaped blame for the failure to foresee the Oct 7 attack because the Palestinian territories have traditionally fallen outside of its field of operations.

But the chiefs of the domestic and military intelligence bodies, the Shin Bet and Aman respectively, resigned after acknowledging their responsibility for the fiasco.

The Mossad distinguished itself in the eyes of Israelis in the multi-front war since Oct 7 by contributing to several assassinations of top regional leaders and militants. AFP