Former Mossad agent Mishka Ben-David participated in the assassination attempt on Khaled Meshaal in 1997 (French)
The name of former Mossad agent Mishka Ben-David reappeared at the forefront of events after the rediscovery of his novel "shark", in which he spoke years ago about the Islamic Resistance Movement's attack on Israeli settlements and an escalation leading to Israel's targeting of Iran.
7 years ago, Mishka Ben-David published a novel in which he talked about a Hamas attack on Israeli kibbutzim identical to the attack of the seventh of last October, and about an escalation that ends with a violent Israeli response to Iran, but today he is not proud of this, but is worried about the sequel of events.
This spy-turned-thriller writer considers his 12 years of work in the Israeli intelligence services to be an endless source of inspiration with a link between all the stories represented by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Since the unprecedented attack by Hamas (the flood of Al-Aqsa), one of his best-selling books has taken on prophetic dimensions, the book "Shark" tells of a bloody escalation that begins with an attack by Hamas fighters on kibbutzim, culminating in a strong retaliatory response from Israel to Iran.
"We are a few steps away," the 72-year-old former agent said during an interview with Agence France-Presse at his home overlooking the countryside surrounding occupied Jerusalem, while the Gaza Strip appears on the distant horizon.
At the end of last week, Tehran launched hundreds of missiles and drones towards Israel, while Israel is vowing to respond to this unprecedented attack.
The assassination of Meshaal
In 2017, the book "shark" was released, which tells how armed Hamas fighters entered Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the most damaged on October 7, in an attack that left dozens dead.
It is a scenario imagined by Ben-David, who wrote more than 20 works, many of which were translated abroad, while conducting surveys in these agricultural towns located in southern Israel on the border with Gaza.
"There I wondered what would be the best place to attack if I were in the place of Hamas (...) these kibbutzim were protected for daily life, against a specific attack in a specific place, but they were not protected from a full-scale invasion,"he said.
Ben-David was one of those involved in the failed assassination attempt on the former head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, who was then residing in the Jordanian capital, Amman, in September 1997.
A series of setbacks derailed the well-prepared plan, and Mishka found himself on an unexpected mission: to rescue the man targeted by the Israeli services.
"We suggested several ways to kill Meshaal: booby-trapping his car, shooting him with a sniper or assassinating him at close range, but Benjamin Netanyahu (then prime minister in his first term) said I want a way to kill him silently, without leaving any trace,"Ben-David said.
Eventually, the agents decide to use poison to kill Mashal. Mishka Ben-David, who was then the head of the Intelligence Department of the Mossad executive Unit, says that two agents "managed to spray the substance "on him, but unexpected events led to their"arrest".
"I was carrying the poison antidote in case one of the agents was injured by it" during the operation, he adds, but Meshaal was the beneficiary of it in the end, as Jordan negotiated the release of the two Israeli agents, demanding Meshaal's rescue in return.
Mishka Ben-David left the Mossad in 1999 after his identity was revealed following an assassination attempt on Meshaal.
Source: Al Jazeera + French
