Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Prisoner X Suspected of Handing Israeli Agents to Hezbollah: Report

Alleged Mossad agent Ben Zygier, known as Prisoner X before committing suicide while jailed solitary confinement, handed Hezbollah sensitive information that led to the arrest of Lebanese agents in Israel’s service, according to previews of an expose to be released by Der Spiegel on Monday.

The German news weekly alleges that before his death in an isolated Israeli prison cell, Zygier managed to transfer to Hezbollah the names of two Lebanese agents also operating at the Mossad’s behest. The two Lebanese agents, Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awada, were subsequently arrested in May 2009 and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for espionage.

The article, which cites an internal investigative report obtained by Der Spiegel, brands Zygier as “Israel’s biggest traitor” and describes how the “Zionist turned into a defector.”

According to Der Spiegel, Zyiger was recruited into the Mossad in 2003 and assigned to work with European companies doing business in Iran and Syria. But the Israeli intelligence agency wasn’t pleased with his work, and in 2007 ordered him to return to Israel. Zygier quit the Mossad in 2008 and went home to his native Melbourne, Australia.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $325,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.