Eli Cohen

Eli Cohen was born on December 26, 1924, in Alexandria, Egypt, to Sophia and Shaul Cohen.[6][5] His father had been born in Aleppo, Syria, and came to Egypt at age seven, making the family part of the Syrian Jewish diaspora that had settled in Egypt.[5] Cohen attended Alexandria's Maimonides Jewish secondary school and was later admitted to study engineering at Alexandria University.[5]

From a young age, Cohen was drawn to Zionist ideals. He joined the Zionist movement at approximately age twenty and became involved in Jewish community activism in Egypt.[5] Accounts of his Zionist work say he clandestinely helped Egyptian Jews move to Israel.[7] His connection to an Israeli espionage network dismantled in 1954 is disputed: a Jerusalem Center account says he rented a flat for members but avoided further involvement and was released after investigators concluded he had not belonged to the network or known about its operations.[2]

Cohen's parents and three brothers emigrated to Israel in 1949, while he remained in Egypt to complete his studies and coordinate Jewish and Zionist activities.[6] Egyptian authorities investigated and interrogated him because of his pro-Israel activity, but did not establish sufficient evidence to charge him.[6] During the Sinai Campaign in 1956, Egyptian authorities detained and expelled him. He arrived in Israel on February 8, 1957, and settled in Bat Yam.[6][5]

After arriving in Israel, Cohen worked as an Arabic-language press translator in the Intelligence Directorate and later as an accountant at Hamashbir Hamerkazi.[5] In 1959 he married Nadia Majald, an Iraqi-born Jew; they would have three children—Sophie, Irit, and Shai.[6][2] His younger brother Maurice Cohen also worked for the Mossad.[5]

Israeli intelligence initially passed over Cohen for recruitment. Unit 188 of Military Intelligence rejected him because Egyptian intelligence already knew him, but he renewed his candidacy on his own initiative, was interviewed again in 1959, began training in May 1960, and completed his preparation by the end of that year.[2] In early 1961, Chief of Military Intelligence Chaim Herzog signed the authorization for Cohen to serve as an intelligence operative.[6] His training encompassed evasive driving, weapons use, topography, map reading, sabotage, radio transmission, and cryptography—an unusually broad curriculum reflecting the scope of the mission being planned for him.[6]

Building the Cover Identity

Intelligence handlers selected Cohen in large part because he was Arab-born and fluent in Arabic, English, and French—qualities that would allow him to pass convincingly as a Syrian émigré.[6] In early 1961, he was dispatched to Buenos Aires, where Israeli handlers constructed the identity of Kamel Amin Thaabet, also rendered as Kamal Amin Thabet, an Argentine Arab of Syrian origin.[2] Cohen learned Spanish, obtained Argentine documents, and integrated into the local Arab community, cultivating relationships with prominent, well-connected people of Syrian origin that would smooth his later entry into Syrian society.[2]

At the end of 1961, he traveled to Europe to establish a business identity connected to the Belgian import-export company Rafimex, lending his cover story additional commercial credibility.[2] His cover presented him as a successful Syrian businessman, nationalist, and generous patriot who had lived abroad for many years and was now eager to return to his homeland.[2]

Operations in Damascus

Cohen entered Syria and settled in Damascus in January 1962.[2] His first message after arriving read simply: "I have arrived safely."[8] He rented an apartment near the Syrian General Staff headquarters; a Jerusalem Center account says it overlooked the building, allowing him to observe unusual activity there.[5][2]

As Kamel Amin Thaabet, Cohen rapidly cultivated a reputation as a generous and patriotic businessman. He hosted parties, made charitable donations, gave gifts, and made political contributions that endeared him to Ba'ath Party figures, military officers, government officials, and members of Syria's political elite.[6][2] Syrian figures trusted him sufficiently to discuss military and political matters openly in his presence, take him on tours of military sites, and introduce him to additional influential contacts.[2] His cover was so effective that a Syrian friend who had served as deputy minister for information arranged for Cohen to be interviewed on Damascus Radio in December 1962 about his life and the lives of Syrian refugees in Argentina—an interview he conducted in Syrian-accented Arabic.[2]

A journalistic passage reproduced in a 1976 Hebrew Union College thesis says Cohen became a confidant of senior army officers and government officials and knew the Syrian president on a first-name basis.[3] During visits to Syrian military installations, officers showed him defensive positions and explained their systems in detail, apparently unaware they were briefing an Israeli agent.[6] On one occasion during a border crossing into Syria, customs officers did not search his suitcases—which contained Israeli spy equipment—because a Syrian contact intervened and told junior officers that the bags had already been checked.[8]

Intelligence Transmitted to Israel

The intelligence Cohen transmitted to Israel was wide-ranging and of considerable operational value. His reporting covered Syrian army and air-force movements, commander appointments, new weapons and military equipment, the stability of the Syrian regime, and public sentiment within the country.[2] He transmitted intelligence on Syrian efforts to divert the sources of the Jordan River in 1964, information credited with enabling Israel to thwart the plan.[6][2] He also reported on Soviet assistance to Syria, Syrian connections with Palestinian terrorist organizations, and sites where Syria planned to sabotage Israel's National Water Carrier.[6][5]

Cohen used a range of tradecraft methods to transmit information: an encrypted transmitter concealed in ordinary-looking objects, prearranged broadcast times, invisible ink in apparently innocent letters to Rafimex, and a camera with which he photographed important sites during trips with Syrian friends.[2] He made several trips back to Israel during his assignment and returned in September 1964 to be present for the birth of his son Shai.[2]

His access to the Golan Heights proved especially consequential. Senior Syrian officers took him to military positions there and explained the defensive system in detail.[6] Cohen memorized and transmitted the locations of Syrian guns, trenches, machine-gun nests, tank traps, and other fortifications.[6] This intelligence has been credited by multiple sources with contributing significantly to Israel's successful capture of the plateau during the 1967 Six-Day War.[1][9] A journalistic passage reproduced in a 1976 thesis described the information as invaluable when the Israeli army overran the positions.[3]

The Jerusalem Center for Foreign and Security Affairs states that Cohen carried out five missions to Syria over three years, with his first three conducted under Unit 188 of Military Intelligence and his final two under the Mossad after Unit 188 was transferred to that organization on October 1, 1963.[2] Each of his first four missions lasted approximately six months.[2]

Cohen returned to Damascus at the end of 1964 for what would prove his final mission. According to the Israeli Ministry of Education, the Syrian army declared a period of radio silence of which Cohen was unaware; he continued transmitting, and Syrian forces decoded his signals and broke into his home while he was broadcasting.[5] Other accounts of how he was discovered differ, as discussed below.

The precise date of his arrest is recorded differently across sources. The National Library of Israel places the arrest on January 18, 1965, while the Jerusalem Post reports January 24.[8][1] The Ministry of Education states that Cohen underwent severe torture during his interrogation.[5] A telegram from Syrian intelligence reporting his capture arrived on January 26, 1965, transmitted on the frequency and at the time Cohen customarily used and written in both Arabic and Latin letters.[2]

Cohen's trial opened on February 22, 1965, in the Syrian General Staff building and was conducted behind closed doors.[5] The proceedings lasted approximately ten days.[2] He was not given legal representation or a right of appeal.[2] Syria refused requests for foreign or local legal representation, and the lawyers hired on his behalf were not permitted to see him.[4][2] Israel mounted an extensive campaign to secure his release, sending intermediaries to Damascus, attempting to arrange a prisoner exchange, reportedly offering five million dollars, and appealing to intellectuals, religious leaders, and heads of state.[5][2] Pope Paul VI and the heads of France, Belgium, and Canada all made clemency appeals on his behalf.[4] Syria rejected these efforts.

At approximately 2:00 a.m. on May 18, 1965, Cohen was taken from his cell to a police station in Damascus's al-Marjeh Square, also known as Martyrs' Square.[2] Chief Rabbi Nissim Andibo-Cohen of Damascus's Jewish community was brought to him for a final prayer.[5] Cohen was allowed to write a final letter to his family in French, in which he asked them to pray for his soul, encouraged them to maintain good relations with one another, and urged Nadia to remarry so their children would not grow up without a father.[2]

Rabbi Nissim Andibo-Cohen later recalled that Cohen asked him to convey a message to his family: "Tell my family that I fulfilled my duty to the end and remained loyal to my country and my people until the last moment."[5] Cohen was taken to the gallows at approximately 3:00 a.m.[2] Syrian soldiers, journalists, and photographers were permitted to document his final moments.[5] His body remained hanging for several hours before a large crowd.[2] He was publicly hanged in central Damascus on May 18, 1965, at the age of 40.[4][10]

Following his death, Cohen was posthumously promoted from major to lieutenant colonel.[5]

Eli Cohen's intelligence work has made him one of the most celebrated figures in Israeli espionage history.[1] The intelligence he gathered on Syrian military dispositions—above all his detailed reporting on fortifications on the Golan Heights—is widely credited with having contributed to Israel's capture of that strategic plateau during the Six-Day War of 1967.[1][9] A journalistic passage reproduced in a 1976 Hebrew Union College thesis described his Golan Heights intelligence as "invaluable" to the Israeli forces that overran those positions.[3]

His story captured broad public attention beyond Israel. The 2019 Netflix series The Spy dramatized his mission in Damascus, and the Eli Cohen Museum opened in Herzliya in 2022 as a permanent memorial to his life and work.[6]

In January 2012, Cohen's widow Nadia received more than 200 pages of newly gathered documents relating to the period of his trial, collected and edited by a special team headed by archive manager Ilana Alon at the Israeli Ministry of Defense Archives. The materials included trial protocols, the death sentence, and items from the contemporary Syrian press, translated by Intelligence Branch personnel.[11]

Israel has continued pursuing the recovery of Cohen's remains and archival materials relating to his case. In 2018, a Mossad operation recovered Cohen's wristwatch from Syria.[1] On the 60th anniversary of his execution in May 2025, Israel announced that the Mossad, working with a foreign intelligence service, had recovered approximately 2,500 documents, photographs, recordings, and personal items from the Syrian intelligence archive. The materials included Cohen's original handwritten will, forged passports, the keys to his Damascus apartment, covert mission records, and documentation of Nadia Cohen's efforts to secure his release.[6]

Reuters reported in May 2025, citing a Syrian security official, an adviser to President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and a person familiar with secret talks between Syria and Israel, that the Syrian leadership had approved the transfer of Cohen's belongings to Israel as a gesture intended to ease Israeli hostility and demonstrate goodwill toward U.S. President Donald Trump.[12] The official Israeli account continued to describe the retrieval as a Mossad covert operation with a strategic partner agency.[12]

Cohen's remains have not been returned to Israel, and their precise location is unknown. Syrian officials have claimed over the years that the body was buried multiple times to prevent its retrieval.[1] Israel's official Izkor memorial record lists his burial place as unknown and records a memorial stone at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery.[10] His case remains a continuing focus of Israeli diplomatic and intelligence efforts.

The impact of Cohen's capture extended beyond Israel and Syria. A 1976 thesis on the decline of Syrian Jewry records that after his arrest, trial, and hanging became public, Jews throughout Syria were continually assaulted—a grim postscript to a mission that had sought to protect Israel from Syrian aggression.[3]

Several aspects of Cohen's story remain disputed. The circumstances of his capture are particularly unclear. The Jerusalem Post summarizes researcher Noam Nachman-Tepper's theory that Syrian intelligence placed Cohen under scrutiny after a December 1, 1964, meeting involving American-linked informant Majeed Sheikh al-Arad and Nazi war criminal Franz Rademacher, eventually breaking into Cohen's apartment and discovering his equipment.[1] By contrast, a World Jewish Congress account says the Mossad revealed that Cohen's last cable was intercepted by Syrian intelligence and led to his capture.[9] The Israeli Ministry of Education similarly says Syrian forces decoded his signals and broke into his home while he was broadcasting.[5]

The date of Cohen's arrest is also unsettled. The National Library of Israel records it as January 18, 1965, while the Jerusalem Post gives January 24.[8][1] The Jerusalem Post reports that Mossad Director David Barnea revealed Syrian intelligence had intercepted a cable Cohen sent on January 19.[1]

The significance of Cohen's intelligence to the 1967 Six-Day War is consistently emphasized in Israeli, Jewish, and historical accounts. These sources credit his reporting with contributing to Israel's capture of the Golan Heights, although the attribution is retrospective rather than a quantified military assessment.[1][3]

An Institute for National Security Studies paper describes a Syrian narrative claiming that Cohen selected Hafez al-Assad as commander of the Syrian air force, after which Assad rose through the Defense Ministry to become president. The paper presents this as part of a conspiratorial narrative circulating in Syria, not as established historical fact.[13]

A 2019 report cited an anonymous Syrian-opposition source claiming that a coffin transferred with a Russian delegation leaving Syria might contain Cohen's remains. The claim was explicitly unverified and unconfirmed by any other source, and the report cautioned that opposition accounts may have been intended to embarrass the Assad regime.[14]