Rafi Eitan: legendary Israeli ex-spy who led daring mission to capture Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann dies at 92
- Rafi Eitan played an influential role in the early years of Israel’s intelligence agencies
- In 1960, he was in charge of the Mossad operation that led to the capture of Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, who was living in Argentina
Rafi Eitan, a legendary Israeli Mossad spy who led the capture of Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, has died. He was 92.
Eitan was one of the founders of Israel’s vaunted intelligence community and among its most prominent figures in Israel and abroad.
“Rafi was among the heroes of the intelligence services of the State of Israel on countless missions on behalf of the security of Israel,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“His wisdom, wit and commitment to the people of Israel and our state were without peer.”
The 1960 operation to capture Eichmann in Argentina and bring him to trial in Jerusalem was the Mossad’s most historic mission and remains one of the defining episodes in Israel’s history.
His trial brought to life the horrors of the Nazi “Final Solution”, which followed Eichmann’s blueprint for liquidating the entire Jewish population of Europe.