Israel says Mossad retrieved trove of Eli Cohen's belongings from Syria

Israel has announced that a covert Mossad operation led to the recovery of 2,500 items belonging to Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy executed in Syria nearly 60 years ago.

The collection reportedly includes Cohen's handwritten will, allegedly drafted just hours before his execution, alongside personal letters to his family, photographs, and classified communications between him and senior Syrian officials.

Israeli authorities claim the documents represent the entirety of Syria's intelligence archive on Cohen.

Among the more personal artefacts recovered were the keys to Cohen's Damascus apartment, which were confiscated by Syrian intelligence upon his arrest.

"This is another step in advancing the investigation to locate the burial place of our man in Damascus," said Mossad chief David Barnea. "We will continue to work to locate and return all the missing, the fallen, and the kidnapped."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently facing arrest warrants over alleged war crimes in Gaza, said: "This material will educate generations, and expresses our tireless commitment to returning all of our missing persons, prisoners of war, and hostages."

Cohen operated in Syria under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet, infiltrating the upper ranks of the regime in the years before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Israeli historians and officials have long credited his intelligence with significantly shaping Israel's military advantage in the conflict.

Captured in 1965, Cohen was tried and publicly executed in Damascus. Despite repeated appeals, Syria has consistently refused to return his remains.

While Israel has not disclosed how the archive was obtained, Israeli media report that the Mossad had spent years locating the materials through covert operations and a network of sources inside Syria.