Residents of the yishuv Yitzhar in the Shomron are reeling in shock after discovering that their neighbor and “friend” was actually a Shin Bet agent, Kan News reported on Sunday evening.

The agent, a man in his early 20s, confessed to several Yitzhar residents that he worked for the Shin Bet for about three years, receiving a monthly salary amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels over the years.

Prior to moving to Yitzhar, the agent studied at a yeshivah in central Israel, which is where he was recruited by the Shin Bet. He first gathered information about the yeshiva’s students and Rabbanim and then moved to Yitzhar about two years ago in a “shared decision” with his Shin Bet handlers.

The report added that the agent admitted to his neighbors that he provided the Shin Bet with intelligence information that led to house arrests and administrative expulsion orders against far-right activists, including minors.

The agent not only received a monthly salary but received bonuses for providing intelligence information about violent incidents, in which he participated.

The young man apparently had a change of heart and is no longer working for the Shin Bet. He confessed his actions to his friends in yeshivah and the “hilltop youth” and apologized. He is now “working with Rabbanim and community leaders to correct what he did in various ways,” the report said.

The agent’s confession included information that led to a Yitzhar family finding listening devices hidden in the couch in their living room.

Akiva HaKohen, one of the Yitzhar residents whom the agent confessed to, told Kan: “This is an innocent yeshivah bochur from central Israel who only moved to Yitzhar after the Shin Bet put him under intense psychological pressure and incited him [against Shomron ‘settlers’] while paying him large sums of money. We’re happy that he understood that the ‘Jewish Department’ in the Shin Bet acts against his friends and decided to do teshuvah.” [The Jewish Department is  the commonly used term for the Shin Bet division which investigates and thwarts Jewish terror attacks against Arabs.]

Another Yitzhar resident said: “The Shin Bet crossed a red line here. Parshas Avishai Raviv 2021.”

The Shin Bet refused to respond to the report.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)