Syria hanged Israeli spy Eli Cohen in 1965 and kept his body; 60 years later the Mossad brought back his will and the keys to his Damascus flat, but not his remains

Eli Cohen worked for the Mossad in Damascus under the name Kamel Amin Thaabet and reached Syria's leadership. Syrian intelligence arrested him and confiscated his belongings, including the keys to his flat. He was tried, and hours before his execution he wrote a will by hand. On 18 May 1965 he was hanged in al-Marjeh Square in Damascus. Syria did not return the body. His widow, Nadia, wrote to world leaders and to the Syrian president for his release; Syrian intelligence kept a file under her name. In 2018 Israel recovered his wristwatch from Syria in a Mossad operation. On 18 May 2025, 60 years to the day after the hanging, Israel announced that the Mossad, with an allied foreign service, had brought back about 2,500 documents, photographs and belongings that it said made up the whole Syrian intelligence archive on him. They included the original will, the flat keys, forged passports, photographs of Syrian officials he took while spying, and letters in his handwriting. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mossad director David Barnea showed the items to Nadia Cohen in Jerusalem. Only a copy of the will has been made public. Barnea called the recovery a step toward finding "the burial place of our man in Damascus." Nadia Cohen said bringing back his body mattered most to her. The body has not been located.