The Mossad announced on Sunday that, in a special operation inside Syria, it had seized the 2,500 document secret Syrian files on executed Israeli spy Eli Cohen.
According to the Mossad, Syria had kept the files in a highly secret and secure location and it took time for the Mossad to locate and plan to take the files even after the Assad regime collapsed on December 7-8.
Within the files, the Mossad found Cohen's original forged passports, his apartment keys, and messages and assignments he received from the Mossad.
Further, the files contain Syrian surveillance of Cohen as he met with top Syrian officials.
In addition, the files contain an original copy of the last will and message which Cohen wrote before his execution, which until now was only available to the public as a copy of the content.
The files also include cassette recordings relating to Cohen.
Further, the files have a wide range of information about the public campaign which Cohen's wife, Nadia, made to foreign leaders as well as to top Syrian leaders to plead to spare Eli Cohen's life.
Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea met with Nadia and reiterated earlier promises to find Cohen's body.
It was unclear why - if now the Mossad has his entire Syrian file - they have not located his body yet.
The new discoveries were revealed near the 60th anniversary of Cohen's death.
How was Eli Cohen caught by the Syrians in 1965?
In December 2022, the Mossad revealed decisively for the first time how Cohen was caught in 1965.
Mossad Director David Barnea disclosed the content of Cohen’s last cable to the agency, on January 19, 1965, as well as that the cable was intercepted.
In the cable, Cohen reported to his clandestine supervisors that then-Syrian president Amin al-Hafez had met with the Syrian military high command at 5:00 p.m. – this being just shortly before Cohen was captured.
For decades, there had been a debate about whether Cohen, who gave the Mossad significant information about top Syrian officials and armaments from the early 1960s-1965, was caught because his handlers pushed him too hard or he himself took too many risks.
Barnea said that releasing the last cable was part of an effort to make it clear that no one was “to blame,” and that sometimes even the best of spies – and he rated Cohen a legend for his contributions to the organization – can be caught by persistent counterintelligence by an enemy.
He stated that Cohen “was not captured because he sent too many transmissions, because he did not act according to protocol or because headquarters pressured him into transmitting too frequently.”
“From now on, this is an intelligence fact,” said Barnea.
Cohen trained extensively and spent time in Argentina to build a deep cover story as a businessman with strong ties to Syria, and succeeded in befriending a variety of top Syrian officials.
During his time in Syria, he threw lavish parties for wealthy Syrians, especially security officials, connecting some of them with prostitutes and sometimes lending them money.
“Eli Cohen was among our best spies. He continues to impact us through his fighting spirit, courage, values and dedication” serving as a “source of inspiration” for the full spectrum of Mossad agents, said Barnea.
There is some debate among historians, but at least some credit the intelligence he provided as playing a crucial role in Israel’s stunning success during the 1967 Six Day War.
However, some Syrians were already suspicious of him after an internal coup in 1963 and Syria also received new technological tools for detecting spy transmissions from the USSR.
Despite Barnea’s disclosure in 2022, some historians will continue to claim that Cohen wanted to stay in Israel in 1964 and was concerned about returning back to Syria for another period of time undercover – the time period in which he was eventually caught.