Zvi Zamir, Israeli Spy Chief in a Critical Period, Dies at 98

Zvi Zamir, who as the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency led a violent campaign to crush Palestinian terrorism after 11 Israelis were killed at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics — and who a year later relayed a warning to his government that Egypt and Syria were about to start the Yom Kippur War but was not taken seriously — died on Jan. 2. He was 98.

His death was announced by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The announcement did not say where he died.

“Zamir led a determined and initiative-taking approach in the State of Israel’s fight against Palestinian terrorism, which was strengthening at that time,” Mr. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Terrorism was an increasing concern for Israel when Mr. Zamir was named the Mossad’s director in 1968. No incident crystallized that threat more than the attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September on the Israeli delegation at its dormitory in the Olympic Village in Munich on Sept. 5, 1972.