Prime Minister Netanyahu has announced the appointment of his military secretary, Roman Gofman, as the new director of the Mossad.
Gofman will replace the outgoing David Barnea, whose five-year term is set to end on June 2.
Considered a close ally of the prime minister within the military hierarchy, he was born in Belarus but moved to Israel with his family aged 14 in 1990.
He reached the rank of division commander within the Armoured Corps and served in southern Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, before leaving active combat to take up a position as head of the Corps at the National Center for Ground Training.
He later served as commander of the Etzion Brigade from 2015 to 2017 and the 7th Armoured Brigade from 2017 to 2019.
During the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, he drove from his Ashdod home to the border city of Sderot and, alongside police volunteers, exchanged fire with terrorists at the Sha’ar HaNegev Junction.
Amid the gun battle, he suffered a serious knee injury and was hospitalised.
🚨Watch:
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) December 7, 2025
Footage of Mossad’s next director, Roman Gofman, fighting Hamas terrorists on October 7 with no vest or helmet — only his personal gun.
At around 35 seconds you can see Gofman aiming his gun at Hamas terrorists, before they begin firing at him and hit him in the leg as… pic.twitter.com/1F7tVj2DSO
Following his recovery, he served as Cogat’s chief of staff, before being appointed as Military Secretary to the Prime Minister.
His promotion to Mossad director was approved by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court President Asher Grunis.
In his report, Grunis had suggested that Gofman should be disqualified from the position over a 2022 controversy while he was commanding the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Regional Division in the Golan Heights.
Gofman had approved the use of Ori Elmakayes, who was 17 at the time, for an Arabic-language campaign against Iran and Hezbollah.
Elmakayes was subsequently detained by security forces for 18 months after being accused of leaking classified information on social media during the campaign.
Gofman insisted he was not aware of Elmakayes’ age and had instructed him only to publish non-classified information, but the teen was released when it was established that the information he had published had been supplied to him by IDF intelligence officers.
Nonetheless, the three other members of the committee disagreed with Grunis, and the appointment was carried on a majority vote.
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