Former Shin Bet deputy director Yitzhak Ilan passed away at the age of 64 on Friday after contracting coronavirus a month ago and being hospitalized in a critical condition.
Born in Surami, Georgia as Yitzhak Debrashvili, Ilan became known in Israel's security services as "the Georgian." He is considered to be the living Israeli who has investigated and interrogated the largest number of terrorists.
Ilan served as an officer in the IDF Air Defense Force and was a Shin Bet detective in Ramallah during the First Intifada, the head of Shin Bet's Samaria division in the Second Intifada, the head of the counterterrorism unit in Gaza and the head of the Investigations Department.
At the beginning of 2010, he was appointed Shin Bet deputy director, and served in this position for nearly two years.
Ilan was supposed to be appointed as the Israeli Security Agency's new director after Yuval Diskin, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to give the position to Nadav Argaman in 2016 led to him retiring.
"The late Yitzhak Ilan was one of the pillars of the service. Outstanding researcher and first-rate intelligence man. Over the years, Yitzhak has conducted many hundreds of intelligence, investigation and counterterrorism operations, which have saved many lives - many Israelis owe their lives to him without knowing it," ISA director Nadav Argaman declared.
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