Israel has reportedly reached out to officials in Syria and the region to locate the grave of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who was executed in Damascus in 1965, and to bring his remains to Israel, the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Saturday, citing diplomatic sources.
According to the report, Israel has also sought to contact additional officials in an effort to locate the bodies of IDF soldiers missing in action since the First Lebanon War in 1982. Additionally, Israeli officials are reportedly working to retrieve a collection of ancient Torah scrolls and other religious artifacts.
The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has rekindled hopes that Cohen’s remains might finally be located, after years of quiet negotiations mediated by Russia failed to yield results. In 2021, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a search for Cohen’s remains was underway with Russian assistance.
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That same year, a previously unseen clip of Cohen in Damascus was released as part of a Russian RT documentary on Syria. The film, shot in the 1960s, shows Cohen walking briskly on a street in the Syrian capital. According to the documentary, the footage was purchased from an antique shop in St. Petersburg and had been filmed by Boris Lukin, a Red Army officer who was in Syria at the same time as Cohen.
RT film shows Israeli spy Eli Cohen in Damascus in the 1960s
(Video: RT)
Cohen began his espionage mission in Syria in 1961, successfully infiltrating the upper echelons of the Syrian regime. Through these connections, he gathered and transmitted critical intelligence about Syria’s military preparations on the Golan Heights. At the height of his success, Cohen was even considered for the position of deputy Syrian defense minister.
In 1965, his cover was blown, and he was arrested. Despite Israel’s efforts to save him, Cohen was put on trial and later hanged in Damascus. Syrian authorities described him as "the greatest spy Israel had ever had in the Arab world." His remains have never been returned, and all efforts to locate them have thus far been unsuccessful.