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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

'Southern Spy': A Mysterious Imposter Officer Shames Israel's Counterintelligence

2026-01-30

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] Real curiosities sometimes emerge during Israel's attempts to deal with the consequences of the "October 7 War" with Hamas.

The Israelis, among other things, are looking for "agents of influence" within their ranks who are responsible for critical miscalculations in organizing the initial stage of the defensive campaign. And sometimes they find people like the "Southern Spy," Asaf Shmuelovich, a retired Israeli officer who professed to be an impostor.

Inexplicably, he managed to penetrate one of the closed headquarters of the Southern Command and subsequently disrupted an important and highly secret operation.

True, as the case continues, more questions arise. At the very least, the investigation still doesn't know whose interests this "agent of influence" was acting in. And here's what happened.

SPECIALLY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE
On the morning of October 7, 2023—a few hours after the start of Hamas's operation against Israel—a middle-aged Israeli officer showed up at one of the Southern Command's secret headquarters.

Posing as Captain Shmuelovich, a "specially authorized" operational intelligence officer, he joined the command center as a "reinforcement." The energetic captain worked in this capacity for about a week, managing to visit several headquarters and military bases in the Southern Military District with the army personnel, as well as participate in staff meetings with then-Defense Minister Yoav Galant.

However, as the turmoil of the early days of the war with Hamas began to subside, the wisdom of Shmuelovich's presence at headquarters began to be questioned.

The "specially authorized captain" had a vague understanding of how to work with classified information, and had difficulty carrying out even the simplest assignments, but was always eager to attend even the most minor meetings.

When it came time to fully register for rations, Shmuelovich provided the personnel department with an appointment letter signed by his superior commander. However, minor discrepancies were discovered—such as misalignment of numbers, supporting orders, and spelling errors in the supervising agency.

This, coupled with the failure to provide the precise identification details of the officer who had authorized him to conduct operational work at the Southern Headquarters, raised even greater suspicions.

The army, trying to keep a low profile, brought in their counterintelligence colleagues. They studied the "captain's" background and returned a few days later with a shocking report: the man who had worked side by side with the staff officers from the first days of the war turned out to be nothing like what he claimed to be.

The very next day after the exposure, on October 15, 2023, the man was arrested on charges of espionage, and a month later his indictment was supplemented with several more serious charges, including treason.

SOUTHERN SPY
After Shmuelovich’s arrest, the army men dubbed him among themselves “the Southern spy” (referring to his assignment to the Southern District, where the events took place).

The investigation established that the man claiming to be a captain in operational intelligence was, in fact, a former army officer. However, he only rose to the rank of lieutenant in the ground forces,

…it’s my understanding — and those who actually know please correct me if I’m wrong — that the best of the draftees are promoted to lieutenant during their three year term of full time service before they move to the Reserves…

after which he was discharged for medical reasons and worked for several years as a hired hand—first as a loader in the port of Eilat, then as a delivery driver in Ashdod.

However, judging by everything, the suspect did not stay in any of the positions for long.

What exactly motivated Shmuelovich to appear at the Southern Command headquarters in October 2023, and even introduce himself as an officer two levels higher, remains a mystery.

The accused himself claims he was summoned to duty by a "superior officer," who promoted him to a new rank and ordered him to defend the country from an invasion by Palestinian forces. However, he could not recall his name or how he met him.

At the same time, the General Staff was conducting its own investigation: Shmuelovich, a civilian at the time, did not have permission to visit the command center and, in wartime, even theoretically, should not have gone beyond the neutral zone.

However, after the general alarm was sounded, he somehow got inside without any problems.

Moreover, his position did not require participation in closed meetings to assess the operational situation, chaired by the Minister of Defense and other heads of the national security services. However, the suspect attended them all, and even managed to bring a mobile phone to one. This went unnoticed at the time.

And while the intrusion of an outsider into the military facility could still be attributed to the chaos that followed the unexpected Hamas invasion, the systematic violation of security regulations during the organization of secret meetings provoked rumors about the presence of double agents in the headquarters.

However, the army command preferred to quickly hush up this version, so as not to provoke the government into indiscriminate personnel purges.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
For more than two years, the Shmuelovich case was investigated behind closed doors: neither counterintelligence nor the military could believe that such a cunning and sophisticated scheme to penetrate a secret facility, as well as the systematic collection of sensitive data, was carried out by an unconscious suspect.

Considering that the Southern District is home to many highly protected and critical facilities—for example, the Nevatim Air Base, where Air Force One "Wings of Zion" is permanently based, and the Shimon Peres Nuclear Research Center (said to be the heart of Israel's nuclear program)—the "captain's" interest in the headquarters' secret data was hardly accidental.

Moreover, during his short staff service, the suspect carefully and systematically recorded data on the forces of the Southern Command, the morale of the local contingent, the "weak" points of defense, and plans for upcoming offensive operations.

During a search of his home, several notebooks filled with notes were seized. The notes were so detailed that even someone who had never been to the area could use them to delve into the affairs of the Southern District.

Counterintelligence was then once again scratching its head: had Shmuelovich managed to pass on this information? And if so, to whom?

The detainee refused to answer this question, stating that he kept the recordings solely for operational reasons and did not show them to third parties.

The uncertainty played a cruel joke on the Israeli security forces: military intelligence was forced to cancel a planned operation to free the hostages, jointly with army special forces, at the last minute, out of fear that the plan had been compromised and that the details of the landing were already known to Hamas and its allies.

This later became one of the reasons why the then head of military intelligence, Major General Aharon Haliva, resigned in August 2024.

It is this episode in the Shmuelovich case that the prosecution is now emphasizing most, hinting that, due to the "spy games," the hostage recovery campaign took a protracted course, and many Israeli citizens subsequently died in captivity or suffered serious health and mental harm.

And that it is not the authorities who are to blame for the failure of work in this area, but enemy “moles” like the “Southern Spy”.

In any case, it was never possible to prove Shmuelovich's direct connection with any intelligence agencies, although they tried at various times to "fit" him first into the ranks of pro-Iranian agents, then into the Qatari network of influence that supported Hamas.

None of the versions stood up to objective criticism.

There were also attempts to explain the detainee's actions as being motivated by local criminal interests. The investigation argued that the gangster underground in the south of the country, composed primarily of Arab Bedouins, planned to use the information obtained by Shmuelovich to more effectively organize smuggling routes. However, this hypothesis also proved unfounded.

The investigation into the case continues, and the main charges remain “espionage” and “treason.”

At the same time, the prosecution, albeit reluctantly, acknowledges that the suspect may well have had "certain clouding of consciousness"—the authorities recently gave the go-ahead for an in-depth psychiatric examination.

If the medical commission determines that Shmuelovich's spy adventure was merely a figment of his imagination and that the classified information did not fall into the hands of third parties, the authorities will be left with an unpleasant case that will deal a far greater blow to their reputation.

At the time it was reported that the gentleman in question, spelt Assaf Shmuelevitz in the Rantburg archives, turned out to be a lawyer associated with Achim L’neshek (Brothers in Arms), the anti-Bibi veterans group, which had held weekly protests against the Bibi government’s judicial reform effort before 10/7. You may recall, dear Reader, that they had led the effort to get IDF Reservists to pledge not to fight in case that government went to war, and some number of them followed through after 10/7 and were discharged from the military. As background, Mr. Schmuelevitz started his career as an assistant in the Deputy Attorney General’s office, the equivalent of our Department of Justice, and had been involved in Lev Kachol, a charity collecting funds for Ukraine, money which mysteriously never reached its intended recipients.

But Ynet reported a week ago that the prosecution contends he was not connected to Brothers in Arms, was not a spy and, despite his protests to the contrary, they believe he is not responsible for his actions by reason of insanity.

Posted by:badanov

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