Eichmann's captor, former Israeli spy Rafi Eitan, dies aged 92
Former Mossad spy Rafi Eitan, who commanded the audacious 1960 capture of top Nazi Adolf Eichmann, died on Saturday aged 92, Israeli public radio announced.
Eitan, the handler for Jonathan Pollard, a US Navy analyst who passed Israel thousands of top secret documents, was himself wanted by American authorities for a time.
He died in the afternoon at Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital, the radio said, without giving further details.
Israeli leaders paid tribute to him with rare public words of praise from Mossad.
"The late Rafi Eitan was a pillar of the intelligence community in general, and the Mossad in particular," agency chief Yossi Cohen wrote in a statement.
"The foundations that Rafi laid in the first years of the state are a significant layer in the activities of the Mossad even today."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Rafi was one of the heroes of the state of Israel's intelligence service in countless acts for Israel's security."
"We mourn his passing," he added in a statement.
Eitan was born on a kibbutz in British-ruled Palestine in November 1926.
He was nicknamed "Rafi the Stinker" after he fell into a sewer during a military operation prior to the...