Published : 16-03-2021
Russian forces in Syria have spent the past weeks excavating a cemetery in a refugee camp in search of the body of a prominent former Israeli spy, according to Israeli sources
Russians have been digging up graves in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, to retrieve the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and well-known spy Eli Cohen, who was hanged in Syria’s capital in 1965.
An object believed to have belonged to Cohen was recently transferred to Israel after being found in Syria, according to a television report Tuesday that claimed a “dramatic development” was made in the search for the executed agent.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed to the i24NEWS channel that searches were underway for Cohen’s body, but would not comment on the belonging thought to have been Cohen’s.
His office later denied the news about Cohen’s item, calling it, “false,” though he did not reject that detail when interviewed by the network.
Quoting an unnamed Syrian government source, the Israeli network said the item could be a document or an article of Cohen’s clothing and that it was handed over to Israel by Russia.
The Syrian source quoted in the report also said Syria and Russia, which backs the Assad regime in the Syrian civil war, were at odds over what to demand from Israel in return for information on Cohen’s remains.
Cohen infiltrated the top levels of Syria’s political leadership in the years before the 1967 Six Day War. He was put on trial and executed by the Syrian government for espionage on May 18, 1965, after he breached the Syrian government under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet for four years.
Russian forces in Syria have spent the past weeks excavating a cemetery in a refugee camp in search of the body of a prominent former Israeli spy, according to Israeli sources
Russians have been digging up graves in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, to retrieve the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and well-known spy Eli Cohen, who was hanged in Syria’s capital in 1965.
An object believed to have belonged to Cohen was recently transferred to Israel after being found in Syria, according to a television report Tuesday that claimed a “dramatic development” was made in the search for the executed agent.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed to the i24NEWS channel that searches were underway for Cohen’s body, but would not comment on the belonging thought to have been Cohen’s.
His office later denied the news about Cohen’s item, calling it, “false,” though he did not reject that detail when interviewed by the network.
Quoting an unnamed Syrian government source, the Israeli network said the item could be a document or an article of Cohen’s clothing and that it was handed over to Israel by Russia.
The Syrian source quoted in the report also said Syria and Russia, which backs the Assad regime in the Syrian civil war, were at odds over what to demand from Israel in return for information on Cohen’s remains.
Cohen infiltrated the top levels of Syria’s political leadership in the years before the 1967 Six Day War. He was put on trial and executed by the Syrian government for espionage on May 18, 1965, after he breached the Syrian government under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet for four years.
