AL-QUDS (Reuters) – The Zionist regime sought to lay to rest on Monday a decades-old debate about one of its most famous spies, Eli Cohen, saying his capture and execution in Syria was due to successful counter-intelligence rather than unprofessionalism.
Cohen, an immigrant to the occupied territories from Egypt, was recruited by Mossad and dispatched under cover to Damascus, where he operated from 1961 to 1965.
Before his arrest, he managed to pass on information that the Zionist regime says proved vital to the defeat of Syrian forces in the 1967 Middle East war. His story was the subject of a 2019 Netflix dramatization.
In the coastal city of Herzliya, Mossad director David Barnea said a recent investigation had concluded that the spy was caught “only because his transmissions were intercepted by the enemy. Simply intercepted and traced”.
“This is now an intelligence fact,” Barnea said, according to a transcript of the event, dismissing theories that Cohen had tipped off the Syrians by sending too many messages, perhaps under pressure from his handlers, or strayed from instructions.
Convicted of espionage, Cohen was hanged in Damascus later that year.
Syria, still at war with the Zionist regime, has refused to repatriate Cohen’s body.