60 years after he was hanged, Israel recovers Syrian archive belonging to famous spy

In this undated photo released by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, identity documents of Eli Cohen are displayed. (Israeli Prime Minister's Office via AP)

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel has retrieved thousands of items belonging to the country’s most famous spy after a covert operation in Syria.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared some of the 2,500 items from the Syrian archive relating to Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who infiltrated the political echelon in Syria, with Cohen’s widow. Sunday marked 60 years since Cohen was hanged in a square in Damascus.

The items recently spirited into Israel include documents, recordings, photos, and items collected by Syrian intelligence after his capture in January 1965, letters in his own handwriting to his family in Israel, photographs of his activity during his operational mission in Syria and personal objects that were taken from his home after his capture.

Suitcases of items brought to Israel included worn folders stuffed with handwritten notes, keys to his apartment in Damascus, passports and false identification documents, missions from the Mossad to surveil specific people and places, and documentation of all the efforts of his widow, Nadia Cohen, begging world leaders for his release from prison.

Cohen’s success in Syria was one of the Mossad spy agency’s first major achievements, and the top-secret intelligence he obtained is widely credited with helping Israel prepare for its swift victory in the 1967 Middle East War.

Eli Cohen managed to forge close contacts within the political and military hierarchy of Israel’s archenemy in the early 1960s, ultimately rising to become a top adviser to Syria’s defense minister. In 1965, Cohen was caught radioing information to Israel. He was tried and hanged in a Damascus square on May 18, 1965. His remains have yet to be returned to Israel, where he is regarded as a national hero.

In 2019, actor Sacha Baron Cohen portrayed Eli Cohen (no relation) in a six-episode Netflix series called “The Spy.”

“We conducted a special operation by the Mossad, by the State of Israel, to bring his (Eli Cohen’s) archive, which had been in the safes of the Syrian intelligence for 60 years,” Netanyahu told Nadia Cohen on Sunday in Jerusalem.

Ahead of viewing the items, Nadia Cohen told Netanyahu that the most important thing was to bring back Cohen’s body. Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to work on locating Cohen’s body. Last week, Israel recovered the body of an Israeli soldier from Syria who had been missing for more than four decades, after he was killed during a clash with Syrian forces in Lebanon in 1982.

“Eli is an Israeli legend. He’s the greatest agent Israeli intelligence has had in the years the state existed. There was no one like him,” Netanyahu said.

Melanie Lidman, The Associated Press