Israeli intelligence has been rocked by the revelation an agent was sent to the West Bank to get luxury tahini from a Palestinian village.

According to Israeli television news, Unit 504, the military intelligence department the runs the country's spies, sent an undercover agent to buy jars of the prized tahini that can be found there.

The Times reported that this enraged the head of the IDF who ordered a military police investigation. 

One official admitted an agent had bought tahini under orders but insisted the agent had needed to be in the village anyway.

The agent was sent to buy the sesame paste twice.

Both times, experts inspected the container to check it was not booby-trapped.

After the investigation, a lieutenant colonel was dismissed and three more officers, including Unit 504's commander, were reprimanded.

One of them was Unit 504's chief intelligence officer Brigadier-General Yuval Shimoni, though he was unaware of the tahini mission.