Israel approves the appointment of Roman Gofman as the new head of the Mossad.. What do we know about him?

SadaNews - The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Roman Gofman will take over as head of the "Mossad" at the beginning of June (June) next, after the approval of the committee responsible for appointments to senior positions.

The office stated in a statement, "The advisory committee for nominations for senior positions... this evening approved the nomination of General Roman Gofman for the position of head of the Mossad."

Netanyahu had announced Gofman's nomination in December (December) 2025, and the senior officials appointment committee approved the decision on Sunday.

The statement added, "After the committee's approval, Netanyahu signed the appointment document for the next head of the Mossad, General Roman Gofman, who will assume his position on June 2, 2026, for a period of five years," succeeding the current head David Barnea.

This appointment comes despite reservations raised within the advisory committee for senior appointments, where its head, a retired judge, pointed out that there were comments regarding his biography, particularly in the context of the controversy related to the case of employing the young Ori Almkais, a case that sparked extensive discussion in political and security circles within Israel.

Gofman (49 years old) is a military general currently serving as the military secretary to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Roman Gofman was born in Belarus in 1976, arrived in Israel at the age of fourteen, and joined the occupation army in 1995 in the armored corps.

He was appointed military attaché in Benjamin Netanyahu's office in April (April) 2024 after being injured during battles with "Hamas" in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

At that time, he was the commander of the national infantry training center. The Mossad was not affected by the failure of Israeli forces during the October 7 attack, as the Palestinian territories are traditionally outside its scope of work.

The Mossad has gained prominence in the eyes of Israelis through its contributions in eliminating the leadership of Lebanese "Hezbollah" in 2024, and in targeting the leadership of the Iranian armed forces during the 12-day war waged by Israel against Iran in June 2025, and then during the Israeli-American attack on Iran on February 28.