Approximately 60 years ago, on May 18, 1965, Syria executed the operative, "our man in Damascus," who ranked among the most accomplished spies the Mossad deployed in Syria. He had achieved legendary status through his extraordinary infiltration of Syrian leadership circles, becoming an advisor to senior decision-makers. Following his capture, authorities conducted a show trial, and despite Israeli attempts to negotiate an agreement with the Syrians to spare his life, he received a death sentence and was executed by hanging at midnight in Damascus's central square.

Video: Eli Cohen's personal items retrieved / Credit: PMO

The passing years transformed Cohen, a hero and legend both in life and death, into a recognizable figure in every Israeli household, including a Netflix series exploring his life. Nevertheless, all efforts to establish him as a legend did not diminish his family and friends' pain, nor did they provide answers to the questions surrounding his death.

In May, precisely 60 years following his execution, through a covert Mossad operation, Syrian archives concerning the late Eli Cohen were retrieved alongside thousands of additional materials held by the enemy army. The archives contain approximately 2,500 documents, raising fresh hope for locating his burial site after his execution in Syria.

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The materials arrived in Israel at an emotionally significant and symbolic time – approaching the 60th anniversary of Cohen's execution on May 18, 1965, in Damascus's main Al-Marjeh Square.

During a special meeting held Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director Dadi Barnea, Eli Cohen's widow, Nadia Cohen, was presented with several original documents and personal belongings recovered from Syria. Among the documents was the original will written by Eli Cohen just hours before his execution – until now, only a copy had ever been publicly revealed.

The exceptional archive includes approximately 2,500 documents, photographs, and original personal items, most being revealed for the first time. Syrian intelligence collected these materials following Cohen's capture in January 1965. The collection includes recordings and documentation from his investigation files and those of individuals with whom he maintained contact, handwritten letters to his family in Israel, photographs documenting his operational mission in Syria, and personal belongings seized from his residence after his capture.

Video: Eli Cohen's personal items retrieved / Credit: PMO

The recovery of these historic materials represents the culmination of decades of work by intelligence, operational, and technological elements within the Mossad to locate any information about Eli Cohen in attempts to illuminate his fate and burial location.

Heartbreaking...From Eli Cohen's letter to his wife Nadia:
To my dear wife Nadia and my family, I am writing you my last words and asking you to always maintain contact between you. I ask you, Nadia, to forgive me and to take care of yourself and the children. Take care of… https://t.co/zPGTQPcsal pic.twitter.com/KOApexwcyq

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) May 18, 2025

Throughout the years, the Mossad has collaborated with partners in intelligence and security communities in Israel and worldwide, implementing dozens of activities and operations, including in enemy states.

The personal belongings recovered include keys to his Damascus apartment, forged passports and identification documents he utilized, and numerous photographs from his covert period in Syria, including images of Eli Cohen with senior Syrian military and government officials. Moreover, among the extensive records found in notebooks and diaries collected from his home by Syrian intelligence were secret missions he received from the Mossad, including instructions to surveil a target and gather intelligence on Syrian military bases in Quneitra.

The original document containing the verdict and execution order was also discovered among the many documents. In this document, the court permitted the head of the Jewish community in Damascus, Rabbi Nissim Andabo, to accompany Eli Cohen according to Jewish tradition.

Among the numerous files located in the archive was a thick orange file labeled "Nadia Cohen." Examination of this file revealed that Syrian intelligence monitored all activities Mrs. Cohen undertook advocating for her husband's release from Syrian prison, including numerous letters she sent to world leaders and the Syrian president appealing for his freedom.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "Eli Cohen is a legend. With the perspective of time, he has proven to be the greatest intelligence agent in the history of the state, whose courage and activities contributed to the historic victory in the Six-Day War. Eli Cohen's archive, brought back through special effort, will educate generations and expresses our unwavering commitment to return all our missing, captured, and kidnapped people."

Mossad Director Dadi Barnea said, "Recovering this archive represents a significant achievement with first-rate moral and ethical value, and another step in advancing the investigation to locate the burial place of our man in Damascus. This important mission remains before us, and we are committed to continuing to do everything within our power to fulfill it. We will continue working to locate and return all the missing, fallen, and kidnapped – the living for rehabilitation and the fallen for eternal rest in an Israeli grave."

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One of Libya's rival prime ministers said Monday he has suspended his foreign minister a day after Israel revealed that its chief diplomat met with her last week – news that prompted scattered street protests in the chaos-stricken North African nation.

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Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who heads the government of national unity in the capital, Tripoli, also referred Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush, for investigation over the meeting, which was the first ever between top diplomats of Libya and Israel. Mangoush fled to Turkey following the Israeli announcement of the meeting, according to a Libyan foreign ministry official.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Mangoush met in Rome last week. It was a small breakthrough for Israel's government, whose hard-line policies toward the Palestinians have led to a cooling of its burgeoning ties with the Arab world.

Cohen said they discussed the importance of preserving the heritage of Libya's former Jewish community, including renovating synagogues and cemeteries. The talks also touched on possible Israeli assistance for humanitarian issues, agriculture and water management, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry.

The Libyan foreign ministry, meanwhile, sought to downplay the importance of the meeting as "unprepared and an unofficial meeting during a meeting with Italy's foreign minister. It said in a statement that Mangoush's encounter with Cohen didn't include "any talks, agreements or consultations."

Dbeibah's decision to suspend Mangoush suggested that he was not aware of the meeting. However, two senior Libyan government officials told The Associated Press the prime minister did know about the talks between his foreign minister and the Israeli chief diplomat.

One of the officials said Dbeibah gave the green light for the meeting last month when he was on a visit to Rome. The prime minister's office arranged the encounter in coordination with Mangoush, he said.

The second official said the meeting lasted for about two hours and Mangoush briefed the prime minister directly after her return to Tripoli. The official said the meeting crowned US-brokered efforts to have Libya join a series of Arab countries establishing diplomatic ties with Israel.

The official said normalization of relations between Libya and Israel was first discussed in a meeting between Dbeibah, and CIA Director William Burns, who visited the Libyan capital in January.

The Libyan premier gave initial approval for joining the US-brokered Abraham Accords, but he was concerned about public backlash in a country known for its past support for the Palestinian cause, the official said.
The official, meanwhile, said Mangoush who was surprised by the Israeli announcement, quickly fled the Libyan capital on a private flight to Istanbul.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity for their safety. Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow specializing in Libya at the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, said Dbeibah has sought to please foreign governments as he has come under growing pressure from the UN. and other countries over the political stalemate in his nation.

Harchaoui said the Libyan prime minister's decision to suspend his foreign minister "undoubtedly" aimed at calming public anger. Israel's foreign ministry did not respond to reporters' questions early Monday, including whether Cohen's announcement had been coordinated with Libya.

Video: Clashes between protesters and police in Libya / Credit: Reuters

An Israeli official, however, said the Foreign Ministry was forced to go public after an Israeli media outlet planned to publish a report on the meeting. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes diplomacy, said that Israel informed the Libyans about the leak and said that both countries had previously agreed to announce the meeting at an unspecified time.

Libya was plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The oil-rich country has been split between the Western-backed government in Tripoli and a rival administration in the country's east. Each side has been backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Gadhafi was hostile to Israel and a staunch supporter of the Palestinians, including radical militant groups opposed to peace with Israel.

Sunday's announcement of the meeting prompted scattered protests in Tripoli and other towns in western Libya. Protesters stormed the foreign ministry headquarters to condemn the meeting, while others attacked and burned a residence for the prime minister in Tripoli, according to local reports.

In the town of Zawiya protesters burned the Israeli flag, while others held the Palestinian flag. There were also protests in the city of Misrata, a stronghold for Dbeibah, according to footage circulated on social media and verified by The Associated Press.

Khalid al-Mishri, an Islamist politician who was the chair of the State Council, a Tripoli-based legislative body, condemned the meeting and called for the dismissal of Dbeibah's government, which is close to the US and the West.

"This government has crossed all prohibited lines and must be brought down," he wrote on the X platform, previously known as Twitter.

The east-based House of Representatives also slammed the meeting as a "legal and moral crime." It called for an emergency session Monday in the eastern city of Benghazi. Libya criminalizes normalization of ties with Israel, according to a 1957 law.

In Israel, Yair Lapid, a former foreign minister and prime minister, criticized Cohen for going public with the sensitive meeting.

"Countries of the world this morning are looking at the irresponsible leak of the meeting of the Israeli and Libyan foreign minister and asking themselves: Is it possible to manage foreign relations with this country? Is it possible to trust this country?" Lapid said in a statement.

Israeli officials told Israel Hayom that both sides had agreed to publish the meeting's taking place and that the only surprise was that journalists got word of it so there was no choice but and make it public sooner. They also noted that "the most high-ranking levels" in Libya were involved in coordinating the meeting. They stressed that there is no breach of confidentiality since there was never an agreement to keep it secret, noting that the foreign minister may have fled because of the protests that were clearly threatening.

A senior diplomatic official dismissed the claims made by the Israeli Opposition that this caused an embarrassment to Israel's diplomatic standing. "The suggestions that this was a flop on Israel's part come from Israel, whether in the Opposition or from Likud, who want to undermine the Foreign Ministry's," the officials said.

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US defense guarantees under an Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement would make Gulf states' nuclear ambitions "unnecessary," according to Jerusalem's top diplomat.

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The Americans would be able to provide protection against Iranian aggression in the region, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen argued in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

"[A] defense pledge could reassure Middle Eastern nations, primarily Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states," he wrote. "This approach would make individual nuclear ambitions unnecessary, bolster regional stability, and promote the peace and normalization agenda."

Cohen continued: "A united front, bringing together moderate Sunni nations and Israel, would be an effective check on Iran's growing ambitions." South Korea, which has not pursued nuclear weapons, could be a model for this arrangement, Cohen posited. Just as the US protects Seoul from Pyongyang, so too could Washington defend Riyadh from Tehran.

Video: Erdogan meets bin Salman / Social media

"South Korea, despite living under the shadow of a nuclear-armed neighbor and having the means to develop its own nuclear weapons, has abstained from nuclear-weapons development," Cohen wrote. "The US' defense commitment acts as South Korea's deterrent against northern aggression."

Cohen earlier this week said that the Palestinian issue will not be an obstacle to normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia. "The current Israeli government will take steps to improve the Palestinian economy," he stated, amid reports that one of Riyadh's demands for a US-brokered deal to join the Abraham Accords involves concessions to the Palestinians.

"A visit to Israel by a Saudi foreign minister would be a day of celebration," Cohen remarked, noting that governments led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had secured diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords.

He predicted that the Israeli premier and the Saudi crown prince would make history together.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has recently sent an official démarche to Jordan in protest of the kingdom's treatment of religious Jewish tourists, Israel Hayom has exclusively learned.

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The letter of protestation comes on the heels of a troubling incident some two weeks ago in the Yitzhak Rabin Crossing north of Eilat when 150 Haredi Jews were essentially imprisoned for 48 hours upon entering the Jordanian side. According to their version of events, the Jordanian security officials insisted that they cut their traditional sidelocks. The official reason cited by the guards was that it was safer for tourists not to be visibly Jewish while traveling.

Israel has rejected that claim and as a result, Cohen has taken the usual step of issuing the rebuke letter, sending it to the Jordanian Embassy in Tel Aviv. In the letter, he writes that it is not the first time religious Jews are asked to take such discriminatory steps.

Video: Nir Sharf / President Isaac Herzog meets with Jordan's King Abdullah II

The Jordanian restrictions of this nature have been documented for several years now, and it includes a prohibition on having Jews publicly wear kippot or bring Jewish scripture, prayer shawls, and phylacteries, as well as kosher food. In his letter, Cohen said that while Israel appreciates the Jordanian desire to ensure the Israelis' security, it is inconceivable that this would result in having them not enter Jordan or force them to dispose of Jewish artifacts. He called on the Jordanian side to end this policy and offered to conduct dialogue to find a solution.

"It is just beyond the pale that Israelis would be discriminated against in the border crossing and denied entry just because they are religious Jews," Cohen said. "The peace between Israel and Jordan is important for both countries. We will engage the embassy in Israel and the Jordanian authorities so that we can find a solution for thousands of Israelis who want to visit Jordan but cannot currently do so just because they carry various items. We are taking many diplomatic steps to resolve this issue."

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Foreign Minister Eli Cohen Wednesday evening will travel to Turkmenistan – the central Asian country that shares a long border with Iran – to officially inaugurate a permanent Israeli embassy in the capital city of Ashgabat.

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The embassy will be the closest official Israeli mission to an Iranian border, only some 15 miles away. Cohen's visit will be the first to Turkmenistan by an Israeli foreign minister in the past 30 years. He is scheduled to meet with Turkmenistan's President Serdar Berdimuhamedow, Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Agriculture and Environmental Protection Minister Allanur Altyyev.

Turkmenistan, a Muslim-majority country, established relations with Israel in the run-up to its declaration of independence in 1991. About a decade ago, in light of good relations between the two states, Israel opened a temporary embassy there with a temporary structure, now permanent.

The permanent building was built specifically for the to-be-inaugurated embassy, like the Israeli mission in Azerbaijan, which also shares a border with the Islamic Republic.

Over the years, Israeli and Turkmeni senior officials have visited each other's countries, signing agreements of cooperation in the fields of politics, economy, and energy. Recently, progress has been made in the collaboration of health and cyber defense.

Cohen's visit to Turkmenistan and the embassy's inauguration are intended to send a message to Iran that Israel is a present and growing influence in the region.

On Tuesday, the foreign minister flew to Azerbaijan – a Shiite Muslim country – where he met with Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov and discussed with him regional security issues and strengthening "inter-state security ties." On Wednesday, he is scheduled to meet with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and sign cooperation agreements in the fields of investments, education and environment.

Cohen told Israel Hayom that Israel will work to double the number of Israeli tourists visiting Azerbaijan to 50,000. "I recommend that every Israeli should visit. There is almost no antisemitism here," he said.

In a statement he said, "The strategic relations between Israel and Azerbaijan are spread over security, energy, economy, and tourism. Azerbaijan is a strategic partner of Israel due to its geographical location and the fact that it is a Muslim-Shiite country that opened an embassy in Israel. The economic potential for the connection between our two economies is enormous and we will continue to work together to expand it for the benefit of our peoples."

Cohen was heading a large economic delegation that included representatives of defense, cyber security, homeland security, agriculture, and water management industries in Israel.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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Israel sought to lay to rest on Monday a decades-old debate about one of its most famous spies, Eli Cohen, saying his capture and execution in Syria was due to successful counter-intelligence rather than unprofessionalism.

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Cohen, a Jewish immigrant to Israel from Egypt, was recruited by Mossad and dispatched undercover to Damascus, where he operated from 1961 to 1965. Before his arrest, he managed to pass on information that Israel says proved vital to the defeat of Syrian forces in the 1967 Middle East war. His story was the subject of a 2019 Netflix dramatization.

Inaugurating a museum to Cohen's memory in the coastal city of Herzliya, Mossad director David Barnea said a recent investigation had concluded that the spy was caught "only because his transmissions were intercepted by the enemy. Simply intercepted and traced".

"This is now an intelligence fact," Barnea said, according to a transcript of the event, dismissing theories that Cohen had tipped off the Syrians by sending too many messages, perhaps under pressure from his handlers, or strayed from instructions.

Among the exhibits in the new museum is Cohen's last cable – sent on the day of his capture in January 1965 – reporting a meeting of the Syrian high command. Convicted of espionage, Cohen was hanged in Damascus later that year.

Syria, still at war with Israel, has refused to repatriate Cohen's body.

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The Russian military conducted searches in Syria a few days ago for the remains of famed Israeli spy Eli Cohen. The London-based Arabic news outlet Rai Al-Youm reported Saturday.

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According to the unconfirmed report, the searches focused on the cemetery in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.

Rai Al-Youm claimed to be quoting a "senior official" in the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who said that Russia and Syria had recently stepped up searches for Cohen's body, which has been missing since he was executed in Damascus in the 1960s. The news outset said that the Russians were putting pressure on the Assad regime to provide information about where Cohen was buried, but it appears that officials in the regime do not have the information, as Cohen's remains were exhumed and moved when Assad's father, Hafez Assad, was still in power.

Warning: Graphic images

The report also said that the recent searches outraged Palestinian terrorist organizations in Syria, who claimed that the presence of non-Muslim soldiers in the camp's cemetery "desecrated" the honor of "martyrs" buried there.

Saturday's claims comprised the second report this month about the Russian army conducting searches in the Yarmouk cemetery, which came on the heels of a Russian-brokered prisoner exchange to secure the return of a young Israeli woman who voluntarily crossed the border.

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Israel released two Syrian shepherds being held, and media reports claimed that Israel had purchased $1 million worth of Russia's Sputnik-V COVID vaccine for Syria. However, both Israel and Syria denied these reports.

Earlier in February, Russia's RT television ran footage supposedly showing Cohen walking around the neighborhood in which he lived while under cover in Damascus. The footage dates from the same year Cohen was exposed by Syrian intelligence.

i24NEWS contributed to this report

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Russia's English-language state television channel RT has aired what it claims to be previously unseen footage of legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen in Damascus.

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The airing of the footage came as Moscow was mediating efforts to return an Israeli woman that had crossed the border into Syria.

According to RT, the rare footage was discovered in film taken by a Russian military attaché in Damascus at the time. The half-hour clip includes a street brawl and images of police officers arresting drivers, as well as images of the bustling market in Damascus' Old City. Alongside the tourist scenes, the film also allegedly contained snippets from a military base visited by the Russian attaché and the snippet of Eli Cohen walking through the streets of the Syrian capital.

It is unclear whether the Israeli spy was caught on camera by chance or if he was filmed on purpose. According to RT, the clip was filmed near Syrian Air Force headquarters, in the heart of the city's government district, and the vicinity of Cohen's apartment.

Purported footage of Eli Cohen in Damascus begins 1:06 into the clip.

Cohen's widow Nadia told Israel Hayom she had watched the clip with excitement. "This is another reminder of my Eli," she said.

She blasted Israel's treatment of her husband and the fact his remains were still in Syria, something she found particularly egregious following the return of an Israeli woman that crossed the border into the enemy country two weeks ago.

She said Israel was guilty of "an indescribable crime" for sending her husband into Syria despite knowing officials had become suspicious of him.

"When you sit here among your people, and you see them raise their children and grandchildren, and they look at me and my children – there is no change, no compassion. Let's hear them, let's hear what they have to say to each of us. It's something indescribable from beginning to end."

"The people are great. A prime minister and another one everyone knows is a murderer were involved in his murder. The nation's embrace is what compensates us. They see his fame, his work before their eyes. Day by day, I gain sympathy for Eli. It doesn't come from above but at eye level. It's amazing, and there really are no words for it."

Lambasting the government, Cohen said, "Nothing comes from them, the decision-makers. Our anger … after [late Mossad chief] Meir Dagan, we were like flies they batted away. Meir Dagan embraced us, but after that, we were done."

Cohen had previously said that Dagan had contacted US officials to help obtain Cohen's remains in 2011, at the outset of the Syrian civil war.

She said that late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres and President Reuven Rivlin complained when they were called murderers, "but you murdered them," she said. "They don't like it. So what did they do? Did they not murder him? Did they not murder his children? Me? People like [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, the pope, come. We give them a letter, and the letter gets crumpled up in their hand and doesn't get passed on to anyone."

Calling her husband "the people's hero," she said, "We will not be silent. We will continue to commemorate him. We will soon embark on a campaign to establish a museum in his memory. Just a week and a half ago, we built a private monument next to the Upper Customs House [in the Golan Heights]. There were a lot of graduates, generals. Everything comes from the people: the love, the embrace, the affection," she said.

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Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among countries slated to establish relations with Israel under a regional rapprochement launched by US President Donald Trump, an Israeli official said on Monday.

Straying from Israel's reticence about Tuesday's US election, Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said implementing further normalization deals could depend on the next president displaying continued "resolve" against Iran.

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Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden wants to rejoin the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal that the Republican incumbent quit, to the satisfaction of Israel and many Gulf Arab states.

Trump, who has played up his Middle East policy while campaigning, was asked last week which countries might follow the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in normalizing ties with Israel. "We have five definites," he responded.

Cohen said Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Morocco and Niger were "on the agenda."

"These are the five countries," he said. "And if the Trump policy continues, we will be able to reach additional agreements."

While not explicitly favoring either US candidate, Cohen argued that Trump's policy had prompted Arab and Muslim countries to seek accommodation with Israel.

If the next president "does not show resolve vis-a-vis Iran, then what will happen is that they will take their time, will not rush, will not choose a side," Cohen said. "A concessionary policy [toward Iran] will get the peace deals stuck."

Saudi Arabia, the Gulf powerhouse and Islam's birthplace, quietly greenlighted the UAE and Bahrain deals with Israel, signed on Sept. 15. But Riyadh has stopped short of endorsing them publicly and has signaled it is not presently ready to follow suit.

Qatar, which has links to Iran and Hamas, has ruled out normalization before Palestinians achieve statehood.

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