Israel recovers Eli Cohen’s files from Syria in secret intelligence operation
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Israel announced on Sunday that its intelligence services, in coordination with a partner agency, successfully carried out a covert operation resulting in the retrieval of the official Syrian archive related to Israeli spy Eli Cohen.
Eli Cohen, born Eliyahu Ben Shaoul Cohen in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1924 to a family originally from Aleppo, Syria, operated undercover in Syria during the 1960s under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet.
During his espionage activities for the Mossad, he developed close ties with top political and military elites in the country. He was eventually discovered and executed publicly in Marjeh Square in Damascus in 1965.
According to a statement released by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on behalf of the Mossad, “The Eli Cohen archive has been brought from Damascus to Israel.” The recovered archive reportedly contains over 2,500 documents, photographs, and personal belongings of Cohen, items that had been held by Syrian security agencies since his execution.
The Mossad described the operation as a “joint secret mission with a strategic intelligence partner,” carried out on the eve of the 60th anniversary of Cohen’s execution.
Among the recovered materials are handwritten notes by Cohen, including his final will, interrogation recordings, personal correspondence, falsified documents, and photographs. One image shows Cohen alongside senior officers and officials of the Syrian regime during his time as an embedded spy.
The statement emphasized that the operation is part of ongoing efforts to uncover the full circumstances of Cohen’s fate and to locate his final resting place.