Local Editor

Meir Dagan, the former longtime chief of the "Israeli" entity's intelligence service, Mossad, died of cancer at the age of 71, Zionist PM's office said.

Dagan, who reached the rank of general in the "Israeli" army, was born in Ukraine in 1945.

Dagan led the Mossad service from 2002 to 2011 and had been a recent a critic of PM Netanyahu.

Relatively, Netanyahu's office said in a statement published on Thursday: "the Mossad announces that former Mossad Director Meir Dagan passed away this morning."

Dagan, who joined the "Israeli" army in 1963 as a paratrooper, commanded a company in the Sinai desert during the war in 1967.

In 1970, under command of then-army leader Ariel Sharon, Dagan formed the "Sayeret Rimon," a unit of soldiers that worked in the Gaza Strip to locate Palestinian fighters.

Under Dagan's leadership, the spy agency reportedly carried out covert attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists and unleashed cyber-attacks, including the Stuxnet virus that delayed the Iranian nuclear program.

After he stepped down, Dagan was a fierce opponent of a military strike in Iran. He openly criticized Netanyahu's opposition to the recently implemented nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team