Israel's Supreme Court Names the Man Accused of Infiltrating Southern Command

After more than two years of secrecy, Israel's Supreme Court lifted the gag order on one of the most closely guarded military espionage cases to emerge from the war that began on 7 October 2023. The ruling allowed the public to learn the name of the man accused of infiltrating the Israel Defense Forces' Southern Command headquarters: Assaf Shmuelevitz.

Shmuelevitz faces charges including espionage, unauthorised possession of classified information, fraud and trespassing in a military zone. According to the indictment, filed in November 2023, he entered the Southern Command base in Beersheba in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, posing as a reserve officer with the rank of captain and exploiting the confusion of mass mobilisation to sit in on highly classified operational meetings for roughly a week.

What the court weighed

"During a moment of unprecedented national emergency, Shmuelevitz allegedly exploited acute vulnerabilities in our security framework," Justice Gila Canfy-Steinitz wrote in the decision. The court rejected his appeal to keep his identity sealed, citing the passage of time since the outbreak of hostilities and the public's right to know about alleged breaches of national security. It did partly grant the state's request to protect the identities of senior officers connected to the case, including colonels and above, on national security grounds and because of the potential for harassment abroad.

His defence had argued that naming him could put him at risk, pointing to online conspiracy theories claiming he had collaborated with the enemy. Canfy-Steinitz dismissed that, noting the argument was raised only at the appeal stage and that Shmuelevitz remained in custody under hospitalisation conditions with no evidence of a credible threat.

What he is alleged to have done

Investigators say Shmuelevitz recorded mission plans, intelligence data and other secret material in a notebook that was found on the base. Prosecutors allege he passed this information to people not cleared to receive it and, in some cases, recruited soldiers into what was described as a wartime intelligence team operating outside any legal authority.

The Times of Israel reported on 22 January 2026 that the counts in the November 2023 indictment included obtaining something fraudulently under aggravated circumstances, providing confidential information, possession of secret information without authority and entering a military zone, and that the Supreme Court had rejected his appeal against the Beersheba court's decision to release his identity.

One point is easily lost in the word "espionage." Ynetnews reported that prosecutors did not allege he was working for a foreign power, and that the court treated publication as the appropriate answer to the distorted accounts circulating online rather than as a punishment: the same conspiracy theories his lawyers cited as a reason to keep his name sealed.

Fitness, and a family's account

A medical evaluation accepted by the state concluded that Shmuelevitz was mentally unfit at the time of the alleged events. He nonetheless chose to continue with the trial, asserting he would be acquitted once the evidence was fully reviewed. At the time of the ruling his trial was continuing at the Beersheba District Court, with eleven evidentiary hearings held and testimony from 21 witnesses ranging from junior soldiers to senior officers, and his detention under hospitalisation conditions periodically extended.

His family issued a statement in his defence: "Since the investigation began, Asaf was presented as a spy and traitor, while we claim he left his home on October 7 as an Israeli patriot to contribute to the war effort. With the publication of the case details, it is clear that this is not espionage, and the charges are disproportionate." The family said he had completed mobilisation procedures with authorisation from senior Southern Command figures and that, at most, he had committed a minor information security violation.

How the case ended

The trial concluded some seven weeks after the gag order was lifted. The Jerusalem Post reported on 12 March 2026 that the Beersheba District Court acquitted Shmuelevitz by reason of insanity: the judges found that he had carried out the acts described in the indictment but was not criminally responsible for them, having been in a psychotic state with grandiose delusions and a belief that he could set up an alternative military framework to help the army and rescue hostages. He was ordered to be hospitalised in a psychiatric facility, with a further hearing on the terms of that hospitalisation scheduled later in the month.

What is still unclear

The ruling did not disclose what, if anything, happened to the classified material Shmuelevitz is said to have recorded, or whether any of it reached hostile parties. It did not explain how he passed through base security for a week, and the identities of the senior officers involved remain sealed. The court also did not say how long the deliberation over publishing his name had taken relative to the trial itself.