Ziva David

**Ziva David** (surname primarily pronounced *dah-VEED*) was a former Israeli Mossad officer and former NCIS Special Agent who was originally assigned to NCIS as a Liaison Officer for Mossad, beginning her tenure as a NCIS/Mossad Liaison Officer in September/October 2005.

About three years later in September or October 2009, after NCIS saved her from being held prisoner in Somalia, Ziva subsequently chose to resign from Msosad for good and was eventually accepted as an NCIS Probationary Agent, beginning her career as an NCIS Agent.

Two years later in September 2011, Ziva's tenure as a Probationary Agent came to an end and she was promoted to a full-time field Agent and also became an official NCIS Special Agent.

In May 2013, when Gibbs was being investigated by the Department of Defense, Ziva along with her colleagues, fellow NCIS agents Anthony DiNozzo and Timothy McGee chose to resign to protect Gibbs.

After news came of a new terrorist group called the Brotherhood of Doubt who were targeting the main NCIS team, Ziva was forced to go into hiding which she did by heading back to her native Israel, essentially resulting in her severing any and all ties as a citizen of the United States and despite DiNozzo's efforts to convince her to return to the United States with him, Ziva ultimately refused and opted to stay in Israel.

Following Ziva's departure, NSA agent Eleanor Bishop later took over the desk left vacant by Ziva's departure from the team.

Four years later in May 2016, it was revealed that Ziva had been killed in a mortar attack on the farmhouse where she lived and that she and Tony had had a daughter together with Tony ultimately resigning from NCIS for good to take care of Talia.

## Biography

### Early Life

Ziva was born on November 12, 1982 in Beer Sheva, Israel to Mossad Director/Deputy Director Eli David and his wife, Rivka David.

She had an older half-brother, Ari Haswari, and a younger sister, Talia David. Ziva served in the Israeli army for two years, as is compulsory for all Israeli women, and later joined the Mossad. She has said that no one from Mossad had recruited her — she volunteered.

When Ziva joined Mossad isn't specified; however, Ziva was already a Mossad operative when her younger sister Tali was killed in a Hamas suicide bombing when Tali was sixteen years old.

As a Mossad operative, Ziva became highly valued for her skills which presumably included assassination and hand-to-hand combat.

She also worked on the orders of her father, Eli David.

During her time at Mossad, Ziva met and befriended Michael Rivkin who in turn became Ziva's partner and boyfriend for some time with the two presumably working on missions together.

### Life with NCIS

Ziva appeared when Mossad sent her to NCIS following the murder of Special Agent Caitlin Todd by Ari Haswari, who had gone rogue from Mossad.

She got into a confrontation with Gibbs and stated that Ari was innocent, that he was still a member of Mossad and that he hadn't gone against Mossad nor was he responsible for Kate's death.

She then secretly contacted Ari and promised to move him out of the country as well as promising to prove to Jenny that Ari was innocent while Ziva also told Ari that Gibbs was a man with blood in his eyes.

Ziva took matters into her own hands and attempted to move Ari out of the United States, presumably to protect him from Gibbs who was seeking revenge for Kate's death, even employing a courier to do but Tony witnessed everything and later informed Gibbs of the development.

However, when she was later confronted with the damning evidence, she finally realized the truth and was personally responsible for killing Ari, saving Gibbs's life in the process while also revealing that Ari was her half-brother.

During a talk with Jenny, Gibbs revealed that Ziva was in the process of escorting Ari's body to Tel Aviv.

Ziva returned after Ari funeral where she revealed that she had become the Mossad/NCIS Liaison Officer, a move that left Gibbs and the whole team completely confused.

It was later revealed that Jenny had created the position and that she had assigned Ziva, believing that Ziva could learn from Gibbs although Gibbs was fiercely against the idea.

Ziva later proved her loyalty when she saved herself and Ducky from a doctor who was attempting to kill them and as such, officially became DiNozzo's third partner while finally gaining the right to claim the locker and desk that had originally belonged to Kate as her own.

It's revealed that Ziva has a photographic memory, enabling her to remember various things others would easily forget.

It was revealed that Ziva snored like a drunken sailor and that like her predecessor, slept with her gun under her pillow.

Ziva also handled her first ever solo Interrogation with Staff Sergeant Michael McMannis although it turned hectic when McMannis began suffering a psychotic break with Gibbs later realizing that McMannis had been drugged with PCP. Ziva was able to successfully subdue McMannis without any problems whatsoever.

It was revealed that Ziva's blood type was AB negative.

Ziva displayed great knowledge about the inner workings of a spy ring.

It was revealed that in addition to being a "screamer", Ziva had also had some stuffed animals up until she was twelve years old.

Ziva went on the run after being framed for murder.

In order to find a missing Navy Lieutenant, Ziva went undercover, disguised as a geek despite claiming that being a geek was a good cover.

Ziva revealed that she was fluent in in French, German, Italian, Arabic and Russian.

Ziva disobeyed orders from Gibbs and was successful in defusing a potential explosive, revealing that she is skilled at doing so.

Ziva befriended NCIS Special Agent Paula Cassidy with the two acting hostile towards each other while Cassidy herself deliberately got Ziva's surname wrong.

Ziva was assigned to be part of Jenny's protection detail with Tony but after Jenny gave them the day off to go investigate the circumstances surrounding a former NCIS Agent's death, Ziva grew increasingly concerned and later convinced Tony to go searching for Jenny which they did. They soon ended up at a diner where they soon discovered Jenny's body among the numerous assassins that had been sent to kill Jenny herself with the grim discovery leaving both Tony and Ziva guilt-ridden and completely devastated over their failure to protect Jenny.

Ziva along with the rest of the NCIS team investigated Jenny's death.

After the case ended, Ziva's liaison position was terminated under the orders of newly appointed Director Leon Vance who told her that she was also returning to Israel which left Ziva and the team stunned.

### Under the leadership of Director Vance

Ziva temporarily rejoined Mossad and was seen singing undercover at a Moroccan bar. She later got caught in an explosion but later survived and returned to NCIS.

Ziva and Tony had a huge argument over Ziva's supposed loyalty to NCIS as well as the fact that she had been in contact with fellow Mossad officer, Michael Rivkin. This prompted Tony to investigate Rivkin for himself and eventually led to the two agents meeting each other as well as the intense fight between both men.

Ziva revealed that her Mossad access code was "Gimel, Vav, Chet, Shin." (ג,ו,ח,ש)

She later arrived at her apartment to find both Tony and Rivkin wounded. She chose to perform CPR on Rivkin and accompanied him to hospital where she later informed Gibbs who had just finished talking to Tony that Rivkin had succumbed to his wounds and died with Ziva stating that Tony had killed Rivkin.

Hours later, Ziva, Vance, Tony and Gibbs arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel to meet Mossad who were demanding answers into Rivkin's death.

### Return to Mossad

Believed to be dead, Ziva was nonetheless found alive and rescued by Tony and McGee, with Gibbs killing their captor Saleem Ulman with a sniper rifle.

Ziva spoke to McGee, and he asked her why she was avoiding Tony. Later, Ziva caught Tony in the men's washroom and apologizes to him for saying that she could not trust him. She showed some of her feelings for him by kissing him on the cheek.

Ziva was accepted back into NCIS, surprising both McGee and Tony who seemed happy about it.

### Return to NCIS

Soon after, Ziva resigned from Mossad informing her father, Director David, via e-mail. She also submitted paperwork to officially become an NCIS agent and was eventually accepted. Ziva was granted probationary agent status pending her becoming a U.S. citizen.

Having passed her citizenship test, Ziva was sworn in as an official citizen of the United States.

Over the next several months, Ziva studied for and passed her citizenship test. She received her American passport.

Ziva was visibly shaken by the death of Mike Franks and broke down with Tony later comforting her in the elevator. The two were later joined by Abby and McGee.

Ziva was knocked out by the Port to Port Killer and eventually captured. It was revealed that Cobb didn't kill her, but he did kidnap her and stash her in his family's barn. He then gave himself up, but Ziva told the team that it was his way to get inside NCIS with Cobb later taking Jimmy Palmer and EJ Barret hostage.

Ziva was also the only person who didn't attend Franks's funeral, presumably because she was busy talking to Ray at the time.

### NCIS Special Agent Ziva David

Ziva finally became a fully-fledged NCIS Special Agent after spending many months as a Probationary Agent as she received her official ID card and also her badge ID. Upon receiving them from Gibbs, she vowed to carry them with tremendous pride.

Ziva traveled to Afghanistan to help rescue a kidnapped Marine who was originally thought to have died during an attack on the school the Marine was attending.

### After Dearing's Attack

Ziva and Tony survived the elevator and were eventually freed. They along with the rest of the team soon recovered from the effects of the blast and as such, aided Gibbs in searching for Harper Dearing although they weren't successful. Ziva later expressed disbelief at Gibbs going off to search for Dearing, calling Gibbs a stubborn fool for doing so although she eventually relented but still insisted that Gibbs was being stubborn.

Ziva suffered a great tragedy where her estranged father, Eli died after hit by machine gunfire. This prompted her to embark on a quest for revenge against the man responsible with the NCIS team aiding her albeit secretly.

Ziva eventually avenged her father but upon learning that NCIS was being investigated by Department of Defense agent, Richard Parsons, she along with Tony and McGee resigned from NCIS to protect Gibbs.

### After NCIS Life

Ziva stayed in contact with Tony by sending him instant messages but upon learning that a terrorist group called the Brotherhood of Doubt were after them, Ziva later went into hiding.

At some point, while in a safehouse, Ziva was attacked by a group of mercenaries that the group had hired. Although she managed to kill all of them, she was left wounded and as such, was forced to flee although she left a message for Adam by leaving her Star of David necklace behind.

Tony arrived in Israel in the hope of getting Ziva to return with him to the United States and although they shared their first and only kiss, Ziva opted to stay in Israel, making her department from the team and NCIS permanent.

She later escorted Tony to the airport and stood, watching as Tony boarded the plane for the flight that would take him back to the United States although Ziva herself was later seen crying, obviously upset over Tony's departure.

Ziva's role on the team was later taken over by NSA analyst Eleanor Bishop who after assisting the team with the Parsa case subsequently became an NCIS Probationary Agent.

Ziva was mentioned where Tony answered a phone call from her hygienist with Tony regretfully telling the receptionist that Ziva didn't work at NCIS anymore and that he didn't have a forwarding address for her.

Ziva was mentioned albeit briefly during a conversation between Tony and Ducky.

She was again mentioned where CGIS agent Abigail Borin expressed her condolences about Ziva leaving the team, Borin stating that it couldn't have been easy for Ziva to do so.

Ziva was mentioned during a conversation between Tony and Abby with Abby expressing her anger at Ziva's abrupt departure as well as her concern over Tony's current state of mind.

Ziva was briefly mentioned during a conversation between Vance, DiNozzo and McGee who were discussing terrorist Sergei Mishnev's connection to Ari Haswari, Ziva's half-brother.

Ziva was briefly mentioned during a conversation between McGee and DiNozzo.

### Her Death

The farmhouse where Ziva was staying at was destroyed in a explosion orchestrated by former CIA agent Trent Kort, leaving Ziva's fate at the moment currently unknown.

After it was revealed that Ziva had in fact been killed, whith her heart brother, in the mortar attack on the farmhouse in Israel with her death greatly devastating the NCIS team.

It was later revealed that she and Tony had a daughter, Talia DiNozzo together named after Ziva's dead sister.

### Alternate Reality

In one alternate reality, Ari Haswari never killed Kate Todd which ultimately saw the main NCIS team staying the same composed of Gibbs, DiNozzo, McGee and Kate. With Kate having survived being shot, she was saved from death thanks to Gibbs spotting Ari in the distance, prompting him to order McGee to call in air support which in turn later caused Ari to flee after his position was compromised. Presumably, after taking time off, Kate later returned to active and got married to Tony. As such, Ziva never arrived at NCIS nor did she ultimately kill Ari or join the NCIS team as a NCIS/Mossad Liaison, later becoming an NCIS Special Agent. In fact, the Ziva of that reality remained a member of Mossad and also the Kidon Unit. She was eventually arrested, possibly during a sting of some sort or for illegally operating within the United States and was brought to NCIS with DiNozzo personally conducting the interrogation. Following that, Ziva's fate is unknown but it's possible that she was either imprisoned for being an illegal, foreign operation in the United States or sent back to Israel and Mossad by mutual agreement between parties associated with both NCIS and Mossad.

## Occupation

Prior to joining Mossad, Ziva served in the Israeli Army as is mandatory for all Israeli female citizens although her duration and what she did during her time in the Army remains unknown.

After her military service was over, she later joined Mossad and also the Kidon Unit, becoming the Control Officer to Mossad agent, Ari Haswari who was also her half-brother.

During her time in the Kidon, she met Michael Rivkin who became her partner and boyfriend as well as Namir Eschel with all three conducting various missions together.

Following Ari's death, Ziva eventually joined the NCIS team as a liaison officer for Mossad with Ziva operating with NCIS as well, a role she served for four years although she later returned to Israel.

Having been rescued from Somalia, Ziva chose to resign from Mossad for good in September or October 2009 and she ultimately became an NCIS Probationary Agent.

Two years later, Ziva was promoted from Probationary Agent to full-time, official NCIS Special Agent which occurred in September 2011. She held this position on the team up until her own resignation from NCIS in May 2013 which was brought about by Richard Parsons's investigation into NCIS and Gibbs.

Following her resignation, Ziva, now a civilian returned to Israel, presumably resulting in her severing her ties with the United States and she ultimately chose to remain there despite Tony attempting to convince her to return to the States.

Presumably, up until her own death, Ziva remained a citizen of Israel and it's not known if her citizenship and her ties with the States remained intact or if they had been taken back as a result of her actions.

## Personality

In the beginning, Ziva was emotionally distant and unwilling to open herself up to her colleagues but she later began to mellow, even developing a strong friendship with young children too.

She had a strong loyalty and devotion to her teammates, especially Gibbs whom she saw as a father figure.

However, after her father was killed, Ziva's personality and attitude changed as she became hellbent on revenge, almost to the point of fixation in finding out who had ordered her father's assassination.

## Appearance

Ziva was a young Israeli woman of athletic build with long dark brown hair, brown eyes and tanned skin.

When she first arrived at NCIS, she wore a jacket with a single t-shirt underneath along with combat trousers and boots. She also wore a bandanna as well.

Upon joining the main NCIS team, Ziva's dress style remained the same for a year although she was occasionally seen wearing skirts or high heels, usually in the office or sometimes on the field, especially during a undercover assignment but usually wears trousers and normal shoes as well.

For Season 3 and 4. Ziva often wore a sports watch similar to what McGee would wear during Season 6 but at the beginning of Season 5, Ziva later changed her watch and start wearing a silver watch quite similar to what her predecessor
had worn and she would continue wearing it until her resignation.

Ziva originally had long curly black or blown hair that hung down past her shoulders and in addition to wearing it down, she often tied her hair up into either a ponytail.

In later years, she often kept her hair up in a single plait.

She also tied her hair up when she was out in the field, processing a crime scene or in a stand-off with a suspect with the hair often being placed into a single bun which was often visible underneath Ziva's own NCIS cap.

Ziva also usually parted her hair to either the left or right side of her face, leaving her earrings visible.

In NCIS Season 10, Ziva's hair was presumably dyed light brown with some small blonde highlights visible with the hair itself often hanging past Ziva's shoulders, sometimes even coming close to landing on her desk. The hair later even came to hanging past down her shoulders, nearly being elbow-length.

In addition, Ziva also stopped wearing her hair in a plait, instead choosing to either have it hanging down, covering her ears or tied up and by the time of her final appearance, had opted to leave her hair down altogether instead of usually up in a ponytail with her hair hanging past her shoulders although as before, the right side of her hair hung down, nearly covering her face while the left side was placed back behind her left ear.

During her time on the NCIS team, Ziva was also seen wearing a gold Star of David pendant that she hung around her neck.

She wore this for the first six years of her employment with Mossad before she lost it after being captured by men loyal to Saleem Ulman ripping off the pendant.

Upon returning to America, Ziva went without wearing the Star of David pendant before she received a newer version of her original pendant although unlike its predecessor, the new pendant Ziva later wore seemed to be lighter with the Star of David itself often reflecting when caught in light.

## Abilities

As a former operative with the Iraseli Mossad, Ziva was highly skilled in interrogation, performing assassinations or shootings and could even hold her own in hand-to-hand combat.

After six or seven years working for NCIS, Ziva also gained the ability to process a crime scene all by herself, collect any evidence and she could even interrogate any suspects she interviewed without having to resort to physical violence or torture to get the information she needed, making her a valuable asset to both the NCIS agency and also the NCIS Major Case Response Team

### Hand to Hand Combat

One of Ziva's primary skills as a Mossad operative was hand-to-hand combat.

On many occasions, she demonstrated that she was exceptionally skilled at holding her own, especially against someone else who had undergone hand-to-hand combat training as well and due to her training, Ziva was able to either lethally or non-lethally incapacitate any opponent.

Ziva fought Commander Nelson Tunney and was capable of holding her own against the rogue Commander, easily besting Tunney.

Ziva managed to successfully incapacitate two members of a Russian mercenary group who had been hired to kidnap a pregnant Navy Lieutenant.

### Firearms

Ziva was skilled in the use of firearms, second only to Gibbs.

She was capable of wielding and using any firearm that comes into her possession with incredible skill and was a sharp shooter as well as a terrific marksman, her shots capable of killing an opponent if she chooses.

### Lockpicking

Ziva was skilled in lockpicking, a skill that had helped her and her NCIS colleagues gain access to a locked building such as a house or a warehouse.

## Relationships

### Anthony DiNozzo

In the beginning, Tony and Ziva's relationship was non-existance due to the fact that Tony was still coming to terms with the murder of his previous partner and Ziva's predecessor, Caitlin Todd but the two later became colleagues and close friends, even developing an attraction to each other as well.

Tony and Ziva embarked on their first ever undercover mission together where they posed as a husband and wife team of assassins.
Ziva learnt that Mossad had been spying on her on her father's orders and even received photographs of Tony visiting her apartment.

Despite all the flirting, the two did care for each other, Tony was surprised by Ziva falling in love with Lieutenant Roy Sanders although Sanders was slowly dying from radiation poisoning.

The role was soon reserved where Ziva encouraged Tony to fight for what he loved after she overheard Tony talking to his undercover girlfriend, Jeanne Benoit.

Throughout the rest of Season 4, Ziva showed a great concern for Tony's constant and unexplained disappearances with Ziva even believing that Tony may be ill.

Ziva reacted with "I knew it" when she, Gibbs and McGee learnt from Jenny that Tony had been working on an undercover operation.

Ziva questions Tony about soul mates.

However, later in that season, Ziva's feelings toward Tony appear to have become more platonic. After Jeanne accused Tony of murder she told him to "be a man" and apologize to Jeanne, which he does. In the Season 5 finale, "Judgment Day Part 2," Tony and Ziva have a conversation about Jenny and Gibbs' "inevitable" relationship while working together in Paris.

After shows signs of feelings between Ziva and Tony becoming more obvious. Ziva and Tony admitted to Gibbs that they miss each other.

When Ziva accompanied Gibbs onto the USS Seahawk as part of an investigation, she noticed Tony had three pictures of her in a bikini pinned up in his room (these pictures were taken during Judgment Day Part 1). They also had some tense moments on board the ship. The banter between them remained the same, but in "Nine Lives," Tony shows an interest in Ziva's vacation to Israel, which she takes despite the fact that she'd only just returned to the United States.

Upon finding a picture of a man on her desk, Tony's interest deepened, not knowing that the man in the picture was Ziva's Mossad partner. Tony also wished Ziva a safe trip (Nisiya Tova) in Hebrew, demonstrating that he took the effort to learn at least that phrase in her native language. Ziva and Tony were placed into a war game, during which they were arrested and assaulted by security personnel. They both rose to each others' defense physically — though they need to do so because Ziva broke orders not to engage and the soldiers attacked them. They shared a moment in an elevator where Ziva admits that she only fought the guards out of impulse. They both admit they are 'tired of pretending', while Tony meant he is talking about the mole hunt and lying to each other, Ziva made no such modifiers.

```
Agent Lee's sister Amanda was left an orphan; Ziva and Tony looked after her in the NCIS building. Ziva was shown taking care of Amanda at her desk, watching over her as she drew; while Tony brought her breakfast. Tony notices that Ziva was upset but instead of approaching her, he glanced at her sympathetically.

```

Tony asked Ziva to go to a midnight screening of "Goodfellas" with him, but she decided to practice her air guitar instead.

At one point Ziva and Tony were following a Vietnam veteran who stopped at the Vietnam War Memorial. Although Ziva had been teasing Tony about a former flame who has since remarried to a metro detective, she asked him if he ever regretted not having a wife and children around Christmas. Tony avoided the question and made an excuse to leave.

Ziva received a phone call from another Mossad Agent, named Michael Rivkin who was in Washington, D.C. for an as yet undisclosed purpose, Rivkin wished to meet Ziva. In order to avoid any questions about the call Ziva lied to Tony and told him that she had a lead on the case.

In response to Ziva's evasions, Tony began prying into Ziva's affairs in order to learn more about her recent history, Tony went to see Dr. Mallard seeking information about Ziva's time in Israel after the team was dissolved because he was suspicious of her behavior. Ducky told Tony that Ziva was on assignment in Morocco and that she was almost killed. Tony reviewed the footage of the assignment, which revealed that the man who was her partner in Mossad, of whom she has a photograph, was present in Morocco. Tony asked Abby to run a facial recognition search. The search revealed that his name is Michael Rivkin, and that he is affiliated with Eli David, Deputy Director of Mossad and Ziva's father. In response to this revelation Tony deleted the results of the search and gave Abby strict orders not to say anything. Tony attempted to elicit information about Rivkin from Ziva by inquiring casually after Rivkin asking if he was in Washington. Ziva replied that he was not in D.C. any longer. He was trying to determine how loyal she was to NCIS without getting her in trouble with the director or with Gibbs.

After ostensibly discovering the nature of Rivkin's mission in Los Angeles and his connections with Ziva, she and Tony met in conference with Gibbs, Macy and McGee via MTAC. Gibbs asked her directly if she knew Rivkin which, she answered affirmatively. Ziva's lack of openness with Tony on the subject of Michael Rivkin and her unwillingness to alter her stance by implying that she would answer only to Gibbs on this subject strained their relationship although both Gibbs and Tony are willing to do what is necessary to prevent Ziva from being hurt as demonstrated in the conclusion of "Legends Part Two" and "Semper Fidelis". During the fight between Rivkin and Tony a picture of Ari, Ziva and Tali together as young children was broken during Tony's attempt to detain and arrest Michael Rivkin in a fight at Ziva's apartment. The fight later ended with Tony being forced to shoot Rivkin in self-defense.

Rivkin later died from his injuries in hospital, and his death triggered a series of events that saw Gibbs, DiNozzo, Ziva and Vance being summoned to Israel and eventually saw Ziva being left behind in Israel.

Tony, while under the influence of a truth serum said that he "couldn't live without her," implying that he cared greatly for her.

Tony and Ziva went to Paris and the hotel messed up their reservations, so they share a room. Both later claimed to have slept on the couch, though it was implied that neither did.

Ziva saved Tony from a bomb blast and landed on top of him as a result. His response was that he had missed the old Ziva and she responded by saying she could tell and Tony told her not to flatter herself; it was just his knee (a reference to their assignment as a married couple in "Under Covers").

The pair had an overdue talk, in which Tony said that they have a lot in common in that respect. Their talk was interrupted by Ziva's phone ringing with the caller revealed to be Ray.

Tony showed interest in Agent Cruz's proposal.

Tony and Ziva had a discussion about weddings. At the end of it, they gave each other a look. Later on, after the bombing, Tony told Ziva to leave as the last people were being evacuated. She told him that she wouldn't leave without him, grabbed him and led him away. In the final few minutes, the pair escaped in the elevator. As it began to shudder due to the impact of the blast, Ziva jumped on Tony to protect him and they fell over. As they were going down, they were seen holding hands with Tony's arm around Ziva's.

The two later shared a kiss just before Tony headed back to the US, leaving Ziva behind in Israel. During their time in Israel, the two slept together with Ziva later becoming pregnant with a baby girl she named Talia after her dead sister.

Nearly two years later, Tony along with the rest of the NCIS team was left devastated when he learns that Ziva had been killed in a mortar attack on the farmhouse she was living in. He later discovered that their relationship had resulted in the two having a daughter named Talia David-DiNozzo.

### Timothy McGee

Ziva and McGee were good friends.

When she first moved to the United States, McGee showed her the best routes to work. Although she often joined Tony in teasing McGee, Ziva also stood up for McGee against Tony and she also had a very protective nature towards McGee which was demonstrated, that if any of the women in the prison had hurt McGee she would "kick their ass" for him.

Ziva also seemed to intimidate McGee, but at one point he tried to comfort her when she was accused of murder.

Over all they had a very good, platonic relationship.

McGee, like the rest of the NCIS team was left devastated after learning that Ziva was dead.

#### Abigail Sciuto

Early in the series, Ziva was at odds with Abby as a result of the fact that Ziva's half-brother, Ari Haswari had murdered Abby's best friend and Ziva's predecessor, Caitlin Todd.

Although they showed some degree of friendship towards each other, things eventually came to a head, leading at one point to a slapfight due to Ziva's comments about the possible death scenario concerning Gibbs.

However, they were finally able to put their differences aside and become friends, this time on a more permanent basis. Tony, having taken temporary charge of the team made them hug each other before asking them to give each other "a deep tongue kiss", a request they both punched him on the shoulders for.

Abby and Ziva were good friends when Abby put Ziva up at her apartment for an undisclosed amount of time while Ziva's home was being fumigated. Ziva later repaid Abby by giving her a cupcake which in turn was revealed to have been stolen and eaten by McGee.

Ziva had overcome her discomfort of accepting Abby's hugs and accepted them naturally, even giving Abby hugs as well.

After Abby's outburst at Ziva which detailed how she felt about the Rivkin incident, Abby gave Ziva another hug while also expressing her relief that Ziva had finally returned to NCIS, safe and sound with Ziva saying, "I know".

Following Ziva's departure, Abby took the Israeli flag from Ziva's former desk and has kept it on display in her lab ever since, presumably serving as a sign that Abby does not wish to forget about her friendship with Ziva.

Abby, like her NCIS colleagues was devastated after learning that Ziva had died.

#### Donald Mallard

Ziva has a close relationship with Donald Mallard, perhaps made upon Ziva saving his life from a rogue forensic anthropologist in "Silver War".

She was shown confiding in him over a pot of tea as he offered her comfort when she needed it.

Ducky was left devastated after learning of Ziva's death.

### Jenny Shepard

Prior to their arrivals at NCIS, both women worked alongside each other in a series of anti-terrorism operations that took place all over the world with Ziva even saving Jenny's life in Cairo two years prior Ari' death.

Following Jenny's promotion to Director, she introduced Ziva to Gibbs and even assigned Ziva to the main NCIS Major Case Response Team, Jenny creating the position of NCIS/Mossad Liaison Officer despite Gibbs's misgivings.

For most of Season 3, Ziva often went to Jenny for advice in regards but by Season 5, the duo's friendship had cooled or wound to a simple colleague work ethic as Ziva spent more time hanging out with Gibbs rather than with Jenny, Ziva having also developed a strong, unbreakable loyalty towards Gibbs.

Nevertheless, Ziva, like the rest of the team took Jenny's death pretty hard, pretty hard, purely because Ziva and Tony had been Jenny's bodyguards during a trip to Los Angeles.

### Leon Vance

In the beginning, Ziva and Vance had a mutual friendship due to the fact that Vance was friends with Ziva's father, Eli.

After Eli and Vance's wife, Jackie were killed in a drive-by shooting, the two grew closer but not romantically as they both sought revenge against the person responsible.
Vance was visibly shaken as he told Gibbs and the team that he had received word from Tel Aviv.

### Leroy Jethro Gibbs

Initially, Gibbs was very distrusting towards Ziva as she was Ari Haswari's control agent. Ziva also bore the brunt of Gibbs's anger after Caitlin Todd was murdered. After Ziva killed her own half brother Ari in order to save Gibbs' life, they shared the secret; Gibbs and Ziva are the only two who know that she killed Haswari. There was still tension, however, that continued up until Ziva saved Ducky's life.

Ziva is affected when Gibbs was critically injured in an explosion and awoke with memory loss.

Ducky unintentionally chastised Ziva for not asking which hospital Gibbs was taken to after the explosion. She was visibly upset when he implied that Ziva didn't care for Gibbs like the rest of the team. She also found herself being slapped by Abby when she commented about Gibbs' possible death scenario. Ziva was shown in the bathroom following this, extremely upset by the fact that they think that she didn't care.

Ziva visited Gibbs at the hospital in the night and begged him to remember despite his protests that he couldn't remember a single thing. When he became angry, Ziva used his hand to slap the back of her head, triggering Gibbs's memories. He remembered seeing Kate being gunned down on the rooftop by Ari and also recalled that Ziva saved his life, killing her brother to do it while Ziva broke down and cried in his arms. He remarked that he owed her later.

Ziva looked up to Gibbs as a leader and often restrained herself from resorting to her assassin background in situations where Gibbs would not approve. Gibbs often used this background to their advantage by choosing Ziva to interrogate certain suspects.

When Gibbs saw Ziva being wheeled into an ambulance following an explosion in Morocco during the opening of Season 6, he became very worried and got in touch with her in Israel, revealing that he missed her. Prior to their parting at the conclusion of "Aliyah" Gibbs told Ziva to take care of herself and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Ziva admitted to Gibbs that she was under orders from Director David to gain his trust and kill Ari in the process. Ziva confided to Gibbs that she volunteered for the mission in order to protect Ari. Gibbs replied *"You killed your own brother Ziva!".* Ziva having revealed this long held secret confided to Gibbs her feelings on the subject of her Ari's death and her family saying *“I would have lied to you, he was my brother and you were nothing. But I was wrong about Ari and you. (...) And now he is gone. Eli is all but dead to me and the closest thing I have to a father is accusing me...”**.*** Ziva reveals that when she finally killed Ari, it was truly to save Gibbs and not her orders, re-earning his trust.

When the bodies of those who had been on board the Damocles were recovered, Mossad attempted to make Ziva the scapegoat for the death of Staff Sergeant Daniel Cryer, USMC.

After he heard the rest of Ziva's story Gibbs whispered something to her that is still unknown. As he whispered to her, you could see her crying, but smiling.

Following investigation in to Ziva's role in the events aboard the Damocles Director Vance reconsidered an exonerated Ziva's application to join NCIS, approving it after initially rejecting it. Director Vance handed the approved application to Agent Gibbs who in turn transmitted it to Ziva, whom he called "Probie."

Gibbs had also developed a nickname for her: Ziver, Gibbs was seen accepting a phone call from Ziva.

Gibbs was devastated to learn of Ziva's death.

### Michael Rivkin

Ziva and Rivkin were part of the same mission in Morocco. During this time a relationship developed between the two of them. Ziva acknowledged that she to an extent loved Rivkin, but that she had not yet ascertained the depth or the strength of her feelings toward him at the time of his death, a fact she admitted to DiNozzo.

When she entered her apartment seconds after hearing gunshots following the fight that Tony and Rivkin were having against each other, Ziva reacted by rushing to Rivkin's side as she attempted to stop Rivkin from bleeding to death and even yelled at Tony to get an ambulance despite the fact that DiNozzo had been injured as well.

Despite Ziva's best efforts, Rivkin later died in hospital which led to Ziva becoming angry and hostile towards Tony.

It eventually led to an explosive confrontation in Israel where Ziva demanded to know why Tony hadn't shot Rivkin in the shoulder or any other non-vital part of his body during their fight, causing DiNozzo to remark that she really loved him. Ziva responded by saying that they would probably never know.

Ziva was forced to question whether what existed between them was real in light of revelations made by her father during his interrogation of DiNozzo, when DiNozzo tricked him into saying he "controlled everything".

Eli later admitted to Vance that he had underestimated DiNozzo.

## Family

### Eli David

During Ziva's partnership with DiNozzo, Director David assigned Mossad agents to follow her. Ziva's attitude towards him is to a degree one of ambivalence in the sense that she perceives that her father primarily views her first and foremost as a Mossad Agent, as illustrated by his conversation with NCIS Director Vance at the conclusion in which he called Ziva the sharp end of the spear. This fact was in reinforced by Ziva when she told Gibbs that only Director David and herself had the power to authorize a kill order.

Since her rescue Ziva did not speak with her father at any great length because, as she pointed out to Gibbs "Eli is all but dead to me," until season eight, in which Eli showed up in Washington as a result of a terrorist threat. During that time she remained initially cold towards him, as she and Gibbs both believed that he had "left her to die in a desert." During a brief conversation in which Ziva confronted him over his passive response to the prospect of his own death, he replied, "I am saddled with responsibilities you cannot even begin to fathom...I do not have the luxury of allowing my feelings to dictate my actions. But there was a time when things were very different, when my house was filled with the sound of children laughing. You, and Ari, and Tali...there was a time."

As they left to take Eli and Vance to a safehouse, Officer Hadar said to her, "His heart is hidden for a reason."

Later before he returned to Israel, Eli expressed regret over having allowed his work to take priority in his life, and they were able to come to terms with the past, as Ziva appeared to forgive him.

Ziva, upon seeing her father's dead body cradled it and began saying something in Hebrew with Ziva being left greatly devastated by Eli's murder.

#### Ari Haswari

Ziva's relationship with her elder half-brother was extremely close. Ziva served as Ari's control officer and liaison with Mossad. Ziva initally attempted to shield Ari from Gibbs' efforts to capture or kill Ari.

It was only when Ari attempted to kill Gibbs that Ziva realized that Ari had become a traitor. She was forced to kill Ari to save Gibbs's life.

After his death Ziva accompanied Ari's body back to Israel for burial.

However, it was later stated by Vance that Eli ordered her to kill Ari as way to get rid of a traitor and to earn Gibbs's respect at the same time; however, Ziva later revealed she saved Gibbs out of respect, not her orders.

#### Tali David

Not much is known of Ziva's relationship with her sister. Tali was killed in a suicide bombing when she was sixteen. Ziva describes her younger sister at one point as, "the best of us", though her specific meaning is unclear.

Tali appears several times in a family photograph of all three siblings, ranging in age from approximately six to sixteen.

Ziva would later name her daughter after her dead sister.

### Others

#### Roy Sanders

Lieutenant Roy Sanders was a nuclear inspector, who was poisoned by one of his partners via radioactively contaminated cigars, leading to a slow death. He formed a bond with Ziva when the team was investigating his murder in "Dead Man Walking", and she visited him at the hospital regularly. She recognized him by his orange watch cap he wore while running. Ziva can be seen wearing his orange watch cap.

## Trivia

* In Timothy McGee novel Deep Six, the character based on Ziva was named Lisa.
* Ziva's NCIS hat is the same one that Tony originally wore and was forced to use as a target while on the shooting range. With two bullets in it, Tony gave it to Abby because he didn't need it anymore. Two or three and half years later, the bullet-ridden hat re-emerged where it ended up in Ziva's possession
* Also similarly to her predecessor, Kate Todd, Ziva tended to call Gibbs by his surname rather than "Boss" and they both sleep with their respective guns under their pillows.
* Ziva's "first time" was in a weapon's carrier.
* Like Gibbs, Ziva was known for her dangerous driving style. She told Amit Hadar that she would be driving the Mercedes ML when she, DiNozzo and Gibbs arrive in Tel Aviv and rendezvous with her father, Eli David, head of the Mossad although Eli insisted that her mother taught her how to drive, but Ziva stating that she had taught herself how to drive.
* As part of her Mossad training, Ziva also knew how to fool a polygraph.
* Ziva's actress, Cote de Pablo is originally from Chile and while Ziva is Jewish, de Pablo is Roman Catholic. Ziva also celebrated her birthday on November 12 which interestingly enough is de Pablo's birthday in real life.

* During the operation to save First Lieutenant Gabriela Flores, Ziva was seen wielding a Colt M4A1 Carbine.

* Like the rest of the team, Ziva had a SIG-Sauer P228 as her main weapon while a Smith & Wesson Model 340PD served as her back-up weapon. She was seen dual-wielding them many times.

* Was seen eating breakfast at her desk.