In a complex and covert operation, the Mossad—together with a strategic foreign intelligence partner—brought to Israel the official Syrian archive on legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who was executed in Damascus in 1965. The archive includes about 2,500 documents, photographs, and personal items, most of which have never been seen before.

This historic operation was timed symbolically just ahead of the 60th anniversary of Cohen’s execution on May 18, 1965, in Damascus’s Marjeh Square. During a special meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea, Cohen’s widow, Nadia Cohen, was presented with some of the original documents and personal belongings retrieved from Syria—including Cohen’s original handwritten will, written just hours before his execution.

The archive contains letters to his family in Israel, fake passports and forged papers used during his mission, keys to his Damascus apartment, and photos with high-ranking Syrian military and government officials. Also included are records of surveillance missions and intelligence-gathering tasks assigned to him by Mossad, such as reporting on Syrian army bases in Quneitra.