Isaac Shoshan, a Syrian-born Israeli undercover operative who had posed as an Arab early in his career, participating in bombings and an assassination attempt before making major contributions to the country’s espionage methods, died Dec. 28 in Tel Aviv. He was 96.

In a tribute on Twitter, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who once served in an Israeli intelligence unit that Mr. Shoshan helped conceive, said Mr. Shoshan had “risked his life again and again” on behalf of Israel.

Mr. Shoshan began taking part in intelligence-gathering operations after the United Nations voted in 1947 to partition Palestine into Separate Jewish and Arab states, setting off clashes that would turn into war.

Mr. Shoshan retired in 1982 but was mobilized from time to time by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to train agents and sometimes participate in operations himself.