Demise
Attempting to reach Egypt on foot, Absalom Feinberg was killed and Yosef Lishansky was wounded but managed to reach British lines.
From February to September 1917, the boat Monegan regularly sailed to the Palestinian shore near Atlit. Lishansky swam ashore to collect Nili information and to pass money sent by American Jews to the starving yishuv. However, the presence of German submarines made the trips too risky and the group switched to homing pigeons.
In the fall of 1917, one of these pigeons was caught by the Turks, who were able to decrypt the Nili code (based on Hebrew, Aramaic, French, and English) within one week. As a result the Turks were able to unravel the spy network. The leadership of the Yishuv and the Hashomer disassociated itself from Nili's actions. One Nili member, Na'aman Belkind, was captured by the Turks and reportedly revealed secret information about the group.
In October 1917, the Turks surrounded Zichron Yaakov and arrested numerous people, including Sarah, who managed to commit suicide after four days of torture. Other prisoners were incarcerated in Damascus. Lishansky and Belkind were hanged.
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