Israel recovered thousands of items belonging to the country’s most famous spies after a secret operation in Syria, authorities said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared some of the 2,500 items in the Syrian archive related to Eli Cohen on Sunday.
It marked 60 years since he was hanged in the square of Damascus.
Items that have recently been enlivened in Israel include documents, recordings, photographs and items collected by the Syrian Intelligence Agency after its capture in January 1965, handwritten letters to the Israeli family, photos of his activities during his operational mission in Syria, and personal items taken from his home, taken from his home.
The suitcase of items brought to Israel contained handwritten notes, keys to his apartment in Damascus, a folder filled with passports and false identification documents. Instructions from Mossad monitored certain people and locations, monitored all the efforts of widow Nadia Cohen, and pleaded world leaders for release from prison.
Cohen’s success in Syria was one of the first important achievements of the Mossad Spy Agency, and the finest intelligence he gained is widely believed in helping Israel prepare for a swift victory in the 1967 Middle East War.
Cohen formed close contact within the political and military hierarchies of Israel’s arch enemy in the early 1960s, and eventually rose to become the top adviser to Syrian defense minister.
In 1965, Cohen caught radio information to Israel. He was tried and hanged on May 18, 1965 at Damascus Square.
Cohen’s body remains a mystery
His body has not yet been returned to Israel, where he is considered a national hero.
In 2019, actor Sacha Baron Cohen (unrelated) portrayed Eli Cohen in a six-episode Netflix series called “The Spy.”
“We carried out a special operation by the Israeli state by Mossad, bringing the archives (of Eli Cohen) that were in the vault of intelligence in Syria for 60 years,” Netanyahu said in Jerusalem.
Before looking at the items, Cohen’s widow Nadia told Netanyahu that most importantly, the body of her husband is returned to Israel.
Netanyahu said Israel continues to work on the position of his body.
“Eli is an Israeli legend. He is the biggest agent in which the Israeli intelligence agency existed. There was no one like him,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli Daily Maalif reported on Friday that a senior official from Syria’s new interim government reportedly offered to return Cohen’s artefacts to Israel during settlement talks in Tel Aviv.
Syrian transitional government was sworn in March after lightning rebels forced longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad out of power in December and forced him to flee to Moscow.
Since then, interim president and former rebel leader Ahmed al-Shara has sought to normalize relations between the United States and the Western countries, including the EU, with the aim of eliminating economic sanctions imposed on Syria during Al-Assad’s dictatorship.
