Israel has obtained thousands of items belonging to a well-known Israeli spy who was hanged in Syria in 1965.
Exactly 60 years after the death of Eli Cohen, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the archive to his widow, Nadia Cohen.
It included letters to his family in Israel and objects taken from his home by Syrian intelligence services after he was captured in January 1965.
The Israeli spy’s work in Syria was one of Mossad’s first major achievements, with Cohen widely credited for helping Israel to prepare for its victory in the Six Day War in 1967.
Under the name Kamal Amin Thaabet, Cohen, who was born in Egypt, managed to forge close relations with leading political and military figures in Syria.
He rose to become a top adviser to the Syrian defence minister, before he was caught transmitting information by radio to Israel.
Cohen was found guilty in a military court and was later hanged in a Damascus square on 18 May 1965.
“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.
Ahead of viewing the items, Cohen’s widow told Netanyahu that the most important thing was to recover her husband’s remains, which have yet to be returned to Israel.
A six-episode Netflix series about Cohen called “The Spy” was released in 2019.
