JERUSALEM, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Israeli Mossad intelligence agents carried out a "wide-ranging and bold" operation last month to try to uncover the fate of Ron Arad, a long-missing Israeli airman, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday.

Arad, an air force navigator, bailed out of a warplane that went down over Lebanon during a 1986 bombing mission. Initially taken prisoner by Lebanese Amal guerrillas, he is widely assumed to no longer be alive. The aircraft's pilot was rescued.

In a speech on government policy at the opening of parliament's winter session, Bennett said: "Last month, the women and men of the Mossad embarked on an operation aimed at finding new information about the fate and whereabouts of Ron Arad.

"It was a complex, wide-ranging and bold operation. That is all that can be said right now."

Arad's fate has long generated strong public interest in Israel, whose leaders have pledged over the years to discover what happened to him.