Mossad retrieves official Syrian Eli Cohen archive
The recovered archive includes approximately 2,500 documents, photographs and personal effects — most of which are being revealed to the public for the first time.
Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, in coordination with an allied foreign intelligence service, has retrieved the official Syrian archive of the late Israeli spy Eli Cohen, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Sunday.
The covert and complex operation resulted in the transfer of thousands of artifacts that had been held for decades by Syrian security services in a highly compartmentalized manner, according to the statement.
The materials arrived in Israel shortly before the 60th anniversary of Cohen’s execution. He was hanged on May 18, 1965, in Damascus’s Al-Marjah Square, after being exposed as an Israeli intelligence agent who had infiltrated the highest ranks of the Syrian regime.
In a special meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea presented Nadia Cohen, Eli Cohen’s widow, with recovered original documents and personal items.
Among the items was Cohen’s original handwritten will, penned just hours before his execution in Damascus in May 1965. Until now, only a copy of the document had been publicly known.
The recovered archive includes approximately 2,500 documents, photographs and personal effects—most of which are being revealed to the public for the first time.
Collected by Syrian intelligence following Cohen’s capture in January 1965, the materials include interrogation files, audio recordings, correspondence between Cohen and his contacts, handwritten letters to his family in Israel, photographs documenting his covert operations in Syria, and personal belongings seized from his home after his arrest.
The presentation of the historical materials is the result of a decades-long effort by the Mossad’s intelligence, operations and technology officials to locate every piece of information about Cohen in an attempt to shed light on his fate and burial place.
Over the years, the Mossad has worked together with partners in the intelligence and security community in Israel and around the world, and has carried out dozens of activities and operations, including in enemy countries, to gather documents and information about Cohen.
Among the recovered personal belongings were the keys to his apartment in Damascus, passports and forged documents that he used, and many photos from his clandestine activity in Syria, including documentation of the Mossad agent’s ties with senior Syrian military and government officials.
In addition, the many records found in the notebooks and the diaries collected from his home by Syrian intelligence included missions he received from the Mossad, including a request to monitor a target and to gather intelligence about Syrian army bases in Quneitra.
His sentence to execution was also among the documents retrieved. According to it, the court allowed the rabbi of the Jewish community in Damascus, the late Rabbi Nissim Andbo, to accompany Cohen according to Jewish tradition.
Among the many files located in the archives was a thick orange one titled “Nadia Cohen.” An examination of the file shows that the Syrian intelligence had reviewed all the activities that Mrs. Cohen promoted for the release of her husband, including the many letters she sent to world leaders and to the Syrian president calling for his release.
“Eli Cohen is a legend. In the test of time, he is revealed to be the greatest intelligence agent in the history of the country, whose heroism and activity contributed to the historic victory in the Six-Day War,” said Netanyahu.
“The Eli Cohen Archive, which was brought with a special effort, will educate generations, and expresses our tireless commitment to bring back to Israel all our missing persons, prisoners and abductees,” he said.
Mossad head David Barnea said, “Securing the archive is a significant achievement of the highest moral value, and another step in advancing the investigation to locate the burial place of our man in Damascus. We have this important task before our eyes, and we are committed to continuing to do everything in our power to realize it.”
In late 2024, Israel reached out to Russian mediators for assistance in locating Cohen’s remains, without success. PJC
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