In a secret operation spanning decades, Israel’s Mossad has recovered some 2,500 personal and intelligence-related items belonging to the legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen, 60 years after his execution in Damascus. The Prime Minister’s Office announced the operation on Sunday, coinciding with the anniversary of Cohen’s hanging on May 18, 1965. The cache includes Cohen’s handwritten letters, personal belongings, surveillance photos, forged passports, and official documents—making up the entire Syrian intelligence archive on the Israeli operative. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the operation was carried out with the assistance of a foreign intelligence agency. The items were presented to Cohen’s widow, Nadia Cohen, in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea. “This archive will educate generations and expresses our tireless commitment to returning all of our missing persons, prisoners of war, and hostages,” Netanyahu said, as quoted by The Times of Israel. Barnea described the recovery as “another step in advancing the investigation to locate the burial place of our man in Damascus,” reaffirming the Mossad’s ongoing mission to account for Israel’s fallen and missing. Rare personal artifacts among intelligence material The retrieved items include Cohen’s final will, written just hours before his execution, as well as personal letters he sent to his family while undercover in Syria. Other recovered artefacts include: The keys to his Damascus apartment Surveillance photos and forged identity documents Communications between Cohen and senior Syrian officials Intelligence notes assigned by the Mossad The original death sentence document A letter authorizing Rabbi Nissim Andabo to accompany him in his final hours Also found was a thick orange folder titled “Nadia Cohen,” containing Syrian intelligence surveillance records on Cohen’s widow, who had campaigned internationally for his release. Who is Eli Cohen? Cohen, born into a Jewish family in Egypt, joined the Mossad in the early 1960s and rose through the ranks of Syria’s political elite under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet. His intelligence was credited with helping Israel capture the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six Day War. He was arrested and publicly hanged in Damascus in 1965. Despite repeated efforts, his body has never been recovered. This operation to retrieve his belongings comes just a week after the Mossad and IDF retrieved the remains of Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, missing since the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub. According to the report, Feldman’s remains were recovered from “the heart of Syria”. (With inputs from The Times of Israel)
