Saudi news outlets al-Hadath and al-Arabiya reported Sunday, quoting Arab officials, that the remains of an Israeli intelligence operative buried in Syria could soon be handed back to Israel.
Eli Cohen (1924–1965), one of Israel’s most celebrated spies, infiltrated the top ranks of Syria’s political and military establishment under the false identity of Kamel Amin Thaabet. From within Damascus, he transmitted critical intelligence about Syrian military deployments, including defensive networks overlooking the Golan Heights. In 1965, his cover was exposed, and he was captured and executed by hanging in the Syrian capital.
In May, Syria transferred several of Cohen’s personal effects back to Israel—a gesture that, according to a Reuters report, was seen as a deliberate move to show goodwill toward US President Donald Trump and to lay the groundwork for potential diplomatic engagement with Israel.
In a separate but related operation, the Mossad and Israel’s Strategic Intelligence Service succeeded in retrieving the official Syrian intelligence archive documenting Cohen’s espionage work.
The covert mission, carried out around the 60th anniversary of Cohen’s execution, is regarded as one of Israel’s most delicate and complex intelligence undertakings in recent years. The recovered materials had been safeguarded by Syrian security agencies for decades, hidden away from public knowledge.
Among the recovered possessions was Cohen’s handwritten will, composed just hours before his execution, along with personal items confiscated from his home after his arrest.
The archive consisted of approximately 2,500 pieces—documents, audio recordings, photographs, correspondence, and journals—many of which were made public for the first time. Collectively, they provide an extensive chronicle of Cohen’s intelligence-gathering activities and his subsequent interrogation by Syrian authorities.
{Matzav.com Israel}
