Yael Man (born Eileen “Ellie” Steiner) was a Canadian-born Israeli intelligence operative best known for collecting the information that helped make the 1973 Operation Spring of Youth possible.
Man was born into a Jewish family in Canada in November 1936 and moved to Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of three. Her father was a physicist, and her mother was a homemaker. Although the family had little connection to Judaism or Israel, Man became interested in Zionism through her first husband and Israeli relatives. She studied psychology and computer science at Columbia University and worked in computer programming and systems analysis. After separating from her husband, she immigrated to Israel in February 1968 and became a systems analyst at a defense-related company.
In early 1971, an acquaintance helped put her in contact with the Mossad. Senior officials initially questioned whether her apparent naivete suited clandestine work, but Caesarea commander Mike Harari and Mossad director Zvi Zamir approved her recruitment. She received the operational name “Yael,” which she adopted as her own after retiring, and trained as a field operative in Caesarea, the Mossad unit responsible for missions abroad.
In May 1972, Man established a base in Brussels under a non-Israeli identity. Three months later, she entered Lebanon on her first intelligence assignment. To support longer stays in Beirut, she posed as an American writer developing a screenplay about Lady Hester Stanhope, a 19th-century British aristocrat who had lived in Lebanon. Israeli author Shabtai Teveth coached her on how a writer worked and organized a study, while Man researched Stanhope to make the cover convincing.
After the Munich Olympics massacre, Man was assigned to observe three senior PLO and Fatah figures living in adjacent Beirut buildings: Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar, Kamal Adwan, and Kamal Nasser. She rented a fourth-floor apartment across from their residences and placed a writer’s desk beside the window. From there, and during walks through the neighborhood, she documented the men’s routines, visitors, vehicles, guards, nearby roads, parking areas, and possible approach and escape routes. She also photographed sensitive locations with a concealed camera.
On the evening of April 9, 1973, Man met another Mossad operative and confirmed that all three targets were home. Compartmentalization rules kept her unaware that Israeli commandos were already approaching Beirut. Hours later, forces led by Ehud Barak raided the apartments and killed the three men. Harari later wrote that without Man’s real-time intelligence, the operation would not have taken place.
Man remained in Beirut for five days after the raid, maintaining her routine while Lebanese authorities searched for collaborators. She then left normally for Brussels, preserving her cover for future missions. About a month later, Zamir and Harari introduced her to Prime Minister Golda Meir, who was reportedly astonished by the slight, soft-spoken operative standing before her.
Man continued to serve on missions in Arab countries, sometimes alone, sometimes as part of a team, and at times in command. Most of those operations remain classified. In November 1982, IDF Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan awarded her the Chief of Staff’s Commendation for an undisclosed mission, citing her “courage, composure and resourcefulness” under exceptional conditions. She retired after approximately 15 years of service and married Johnny, a Hebrew teacher she had met shortly before leaving operational duty.
Her role in Beirut became widely known after the 2015 publication of Efrat Mas’s authorized book Yael: The Mossad Combatant in Beirut. She died on August 27, 2021, at the age of 85. She was later memorialized in several Israeli cities, including with a street named in her honor in Or Yehuda in 2025.
Sources: Efrat Mas, Yael: The Mossad Combatant in Beirut, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, (2015). Bibliographic record: National Library of Israel. [Hebrew]
Ronen Bergman, “Our Woman in Beirut,” Ynet, (September 6, 2015).
Mina Berman, “Yael - The Story of a Mossad Combatant,” Mabat Malam, No. 74, pp. 34-35, Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center, (April 2016). [Hebrew]
Ronen Bergman, “A Fighter, a Spy, a Legend in Her Lifetime: The Mossad’s Woman of the Shadows Dies at 85,” Ynet, (August 29, 2021). [Hebrew]
Neta Bar, “Iconic Mossad Agent Yael Man Dies at 85,” Israel Hayom, (August 30, 2021).
“Yael Man,” Site of Heroism, Chief of Staff’s Commendation signed by Rafael Eitan, (November 1982). [Hebrew]
Avner Shur and Aviram Halevi, “The New Jersey Girl Who Dreamed of Becoming a Veterinarian - and Helped Lead One of the Mossad’s Boldest Operations,” Ynet, (March 10,
2026). Excerpt from Operation Spring of Youth. [Hebrew]
“Street Named After Mossad Operative Yael Man Dedicated in Or Yehuda,” Or Yehuda Municipality, (January 29, 2025). [Hebrew]
Photo: Archive of Israel; AI-enhanced.