Yekutiel "Kuti" Adam (Hebrew: יקותיאל "קותי" אדם; November 3, 1927 – June 10, 1982)[1] was an Israeli general and former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.

[2][3] He was killed by a Palestinian fighter during the early stage of the Lebanon War, a few days before taking on his new position as head of Mossad.

[9] In 1978, he went to the United States to study and returned to become the Deputy Chief of Staff, under Rafael Eitan, and head of the Directorate of Operations.

He came back to Israel after Prime Minister Menachem Begin announced Adam's appointment as head of the Mossad, in replacement of Yitzhak Hofi.

On June 10 of that year, the fourth day of the war, Adam and a group of Israeli officers were commanding operations from an appropriated villa in Dawha near the town of Damour some 12 kilometers south of Beirut.

[12][13] Yekutiel Adam was deputy Chief of Staff and thus the highest ranking IDF officer ever to be killed in battle.

His son Udi Adam has followed in his father's footsteps becoming a Major General in the Israel Defense Forces and later was appointed chief of Northern Command.