The report, based on interviews with current and former Israeli intelligence and military officials, said Barnea transformed Mossad from an organization focused primarily on targeted clandestine missions into a central operational arm supporting Israel’s broader confrontation with Iran and its regional allies.

Among the report’s most significant claims were new details regarding the September 2024 killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. According to the newspaper, Lebanese agents recruited by Mossad played a role in gathering intelligence and placing targeting equipment that helped facilitate the Israeli strike that killed Nasrallah and several senior Hezbollah commanders.

The report said some operatives moved through areas recently hit by Israeli bombardment to assess damage and install equipment linked to the operation. It added that Barnea regarded locally recruited agents as among the agency’s most valuable assets and viewed their activities as evidence of a broader shift in how Mossad conducted operations abroad.

The investigation also linked Barnea to intelligence efforts preceding Israel’s military campaign against Iran in 2025. According to Israeli sources cited by the newspaper, officials examined the possibility of supporting Kurdish groups as part of a wider strategy aimed at increasing pressure on Iran’s leadership during the conflict.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli planners envisioned Kurdish forces advancing on the ground with support from Israeli air power. The proposal was ultimately blocked by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the newspaper, although Israeli officials cited in the report differed on whether opposition originated within the U.S. administration or stemmed partly from concerns raised by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

According to the report, Barnea did not believe military action alone would be sufficient to topple Iran’s leadership but argued that sustained economic, diplomatic and military pressure could gradually weaken the system and create conditions for political change.

The newspaper said Israeli and U.S. officials remain concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, particularly a facility referred to as Pickaxe Mountain, which it described as being buried deeper underground than the Fordow enrichment site targeted during U.S. strikes in 2025. Officials cited by the report expressed concern that the site could provide Iran with a more secure location for sensitive nuclear activities.

The report said Trump opposed deploying American ground forces to seize nuclear material or destroy deeply buried facilities, favoring negotiations aimed at restricting Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

The investigation also revisited plans for a large-scale Mossad operation against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure that were ultimately shelved. According to the newspaper, Israeli leaders concluded in 2024 that the operation carried excessive risks and instead shifted planning toward the aerial campaign launched the following year.

Sources close to Barnea disputed aspects of that assessment, the report said, arguing that Mossad had repeatedly demonstrated an ability to conduct unprecedented operations through local recruits and covert networks operating inside Iran.

The newspaper further reported that some Israeli officials believed recent U.S. intervention to prevent additional Israeli strikes in Beirut reduced pressure on Hezbollah and complicated efforts to secure further concessions from the group. According to those officials, continued military pressure could have strengthened the Lebanese government’s position in discussions over Hezbollah’s future role and possible disarmament.

While sharing concerns about Hezbollah’s recovery, Barnea was reported to be skeptical of maintaining a long-term Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon, arguing that previous such deployments had failed to produce lasting results.

Barnea formally stepped down this week after leading Mossad for five years. Despite publicly opposing the appointment of incoming Mossad chief Roman Gofman during the selection process, the Jerusalem Post reported that Barnea subsequently urged agency personnel to support the new leadership and rejected suggestions of wider internal dissent within the intelligence service.

Shadowy groups, which Lebanese security officials and Western intelligence say are linked to Hezbollah, launched suicide attacks on Western embassies and targets and kidnapped Westerners…

Four suspects belonging to Lebanon’s armed Shi’ite Hezbollah group have been tried in absentia by the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon for the 2005 murder of former Sunni Muslim prime minister Rafik al Hariri. The verdict is due on Friday.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and is a close ally of Syria, has denied any role in the 2005 bombing. Here is some background on the group:

Tribunal

• Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has accused the tribunal of serving a political agenda — to undermine Hezbollah — and has said it is a tool of its enemies in the United States and Israel.
• None of the four suspects named have been detained by Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah has said they will not be. The indictment said the suspects were linked to the attack largely by circumstantial evidence gleaned from phone records. Hezbollah said the accusations are fabricated.

History

• Founded in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and classified by the United States and other Western countries as a terrorist organisation, Hezbollah (Party of God) is the most powerful group in Lebanon due to a heavily armed militia that fought several wars with Israel. It grew stronger after joining the war in Syria in 2012 in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
• It is both a political movement and guerrilla army, drawing its support from among Lebanon’s Shi’ite population. The group and its allies helped form Lebanon’s current government.
• Hezbollah’s arsenal has been a major point of contention. The group says its arms are needed to deter Israel and, more recently, to guard against Islamist insurgents in Syria.
• Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organisation by the US, Canada, Germany, Britain, Argentina and Honduras as well as the U.S.-allied, mainly Sunni Muslim Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. The EU classifies Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist group, but not its political wing.
• Shadowy groups, which Lebanese security officials and Western intelligence say are linked to Hezbollah, launched suicide attacks on Western embassies and targets and kidnapped Westerners in the 1980s. A suicide bombing destroyed the U.S. Marine headquarters and French military barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 US servicemen and 58 French paratroopers. One group, Islamic Jihad, was thought to be led by Imad Moughniyah, a senior Hezbollah military commander killed — possibly by Israel — in 2008 in Syria.
• Argentina blames Hezbollah and Iran for the deadly bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in which 85 people died in 1994 and for an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that killed 29 people. Both deny any responsibility.
• Bulgaria accuses Hezbollah of carrying out a bomb attack that killed five Israeli tourists in the Black Sea city of Burgas in 2012.

Government

• 2005: Hezbollah entered Lebanese politics more visibly after Hariri’s killing and Syrian troops left Lebanon. A coalition of anti-Syrian factions took power following an election which gave Hezbollah 14 seats in the 128-seat parliament.
• 2006: Hezbollah and its allies quit a government led by Western-backed prime minister Fouad Siniora over the governing coalition’s refusal to give the opposition effective veto power.
• 2008: Hezbollah clashed with domestic foes and briefly seized west Beirut in the worst civil strife since the 1975-1990 civil war, after the government vowed to take action against the group’s military communications network. After mediation, rival leaders signed a deal to end 18 months of political conflict.
• 2011: Syria’s civil war lead to years of political paralysis in Lebanon. In January, the first government of Saad al-Hariri, Rafik al-Hariri’s son, was toppled when Hezbollah and its allies quit over the U.N.-backed tribunal. Six months later, Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced a government dominated by Hezbollah and its allies.
• 2016: Saad al-Hariri, who spent years abroad due to security fears, struck a deal making Hezbollah ally Michel Aoun president, and him premier. Saad al-Hariri’s ties with backer Saudi Arabia, furious at Hezbollah’s expanding role, hit a nadir in 2017.
• 2018: Hezbollah and its allies won parliamentary majority.
• 2019: Protests broke out against a deep economic crisis. Hariri quit in October. Hezbollah and its allies backed Hassan Diab as premier. He formed a new government in January 2020.

Conflicts

• U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States and France and adopted in 2004, called for all Lebanese militias to be disbanded and disarmed. Hezbollah is the only militia to keep its arms since the civil war.
• 2012: Hezbollah fighters deployed in Syria to aid Syrian government forces facing a mostly Sunni rebellion against Assad. The group played a major role in beating back the rebellion.
• 2006: Hezbollah crossed the border into Israel, kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed others, sparking a five-week war that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
• Hezbollah waged a prolonged military campaign against Israeli forces which occupied south Lebanon until their withdrawal in 2000.