New Delhi:

Businessman Kamel Amin Thaabet arrived in the Syrian capital of Damascus in 1962. He threw lavish parties, became part of the city’s social elite and quickly gained access to the country’s most powerful men. Three years later, he was publicly executed in central Damascus’ Marjeh Square. Why? Because Kamel Thaabet was Eli Cohen, an elite spy working for Israel’s Mossad. 

Israeli authorities are intensifying efforts to recover Cohen’s body. Known as one of Israel’s most legendary spies, Cohen’s infiltration of Syria’s political and military elite provided intelligence crucial to Israel’s success in the 1967 Six-Day War. Despite decades of attempts, the location of Cohen’s burial site is undisclosed, with Syrian authorities reportedly relocating his body multiple times to prevent their retrieval.

Cohen was born in 1924 in Alexandria, Egypt, to a family of Egyptian Jews. Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, Cohen’s family immigrated to the newly founded state. Cohen himself followed in 1957, after years of Zionist activism that reportedly included aiding the covert migration of Egyptian Jews to Israel.

After serving in Israeli military intelligence, Cohen was recruited by Mossad in the early 1960s. Using his fluency in Arabic, Spanish, and French, Mossad crafted an elaborate cover identity for Cohen. He became Kamel Amin Thaabet, a Syrian businessman whose family had emigrated to Argentina. Cohen relocated to Buenos Aires, where he ingrained himself within the Arab and Syrian diasporas, gaining trust and access that would later prove critical to his mission.

In 1962, Cohen moved to Damascus under his assumed identity, where he quickly ascended to prominence within Syrian society. Known for hosting lavish parties attended by influential political and military figures, Cohen used these gatherings to extract valuable intelligence. His efforts yielded detailed information about Syrian fortifications in the Golan Heights, later aiding Israel’s capture of the territory in the Six-Day War.

Cohen’s espionage activities, however, came to an abrupt end in 1965. Syrian intelligence, with assistance from the Soviet Union, identified his covert radio transmissions to Israel. On January 24, 1965, Syrian authorities raided his home. Cohen was arrested, tried, and convicted of espionage.

Despite international pleas for clemency, Cohen was publicly hanged on May 18, 1965.

Since his execution, the whereabouts of Cohen’s body have been a source of contention. Syria has consistently refused Israeli requests to repatriate his body, rejecting multiple offers of prisoner exchanges. Syrian officials have admitted to relocating it multiple times to thwart Israeli recovery attempts.

In 2018, Mossad successfully retrieved Cohen’s wristwatch from Syria. 

The collapse of the Assad regime in parts of Syria has created new opportunities for negotiation. Reports suggest that Israeli officials, including Mossad Director David Barnea, are directly involved in talks with former members of the Assad government. These discussions are reportedly facilitated by Russian mediators.

Israeli forces operate at a location given as Mount Hermon region, Syria, in this handout image released on Monday (December 9, 2024).
| Photo Credit: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via Reuters

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered Israeli troops to prepare to stay over the winter on Mount Hermon, a strategic location overlooking Damascus, adding to signs that Israel’s presence in Syria is set to continue for a prolonged period.

“Due to what is happening in Syria — there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon,” a statement from Mr. Katz’s office said on Friday (December 13, 2024).

The order suggests that Israeli troops who moved into a buffer zone inside Syrian territory as well as a “few additional points” following the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s government are likely to remain.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday (December 12, 2024) that the troops would remain until there was an effective force in place to enforce the Separation of Forces Agreement signed following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel has called the move a limited and temporary measure to ensure the security of its borders but it is unclear when it will judge the situation in Syria stable enough to pull its forces back.

Mr. Katz said the severe winter weather on Mount Hermon, a peak of 2,800 metres (9,186 feet) that straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon, made special preparations for a prolonged stay by Israeli troops a necessity.

A number of countries, including France and the United Arab Emirates, have condemned Israel’s incursion, calling it a breach of the agreement that followed the Arab-Israeli war. But the United States has offered its support, saying the move was necessary for Israel’s self-defence.

As well as moving troops into the buffer zone, Israel has also destroyed the bulk of the Syrian military’s arsenal of weapons and ammunition in hundreds of air and naval strikes this week, a move it said was aimed at preventing the equipment falling into the hand of hostile forces.

While Israel welcomed the removal of Assad, an ally of its arch enemy Iran, it remains suspicious of the rebel groups that toppled him, many of which have origins linked to Islamist groups including Al Qaeda.

Jerusalem:

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday that his country had struck “chemical weapons” in neighbouring Syria, where rebel forces ousted president Bashar al-Assad over the weekend.

Speaking at a press conference, Saar said “we attacked strategic weapon systems like, for example, remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists”.

Saar said Israel was monitoring the actions of the rebels, adding: “The steps we took, the only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens.”

Israeli media reported on Friday that the military had struck a chemical weapons cache in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said on Monday the Israeli military conducted overnight strikes on multiple locations spanning coastal and southern Syria.

“Since the initial hours after the announcement of the fall of the former regime, Israel began launching intensive air strikes, deliberately destroying weapons and ammunitions depots,” it said.

AFP photos on Monday showed damage at Mazzeh military airport on the outskirts of Damascus, including destroyed helicopters and jets, where the Israeli military struck nearby weapons depots.

Since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed groups.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.

The country also moved troops into a demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights region bordering Syria on Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border”.

Saar said Monday that the takeover of the buffer was “a limited and temporary step we took for security reasons”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beirut:

Israeli strikes on Friday targeted a Syrian army position in the country’s south, Syria’s government and a monitor said, as US media reported Israel had hit its arch-rival Iran.

In a statement, Syria’s defence ministry said “the Israeli enemy carried out an attack using missiles… targeting our air defence sites in the southern region” and causing material damage.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israel targeted an army radar position in the southern province of Daraa that had detected the entry of Israeli planes into Syria’s airspace.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory, said the strikes took place “at a time when the Israeli air force was flying intensively over the Daraa region” without Syrian air defences taking any action.

The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the outbreak of a civil war in its northern neighbour in 2011, targeting the army and Iran-backed fighters.

But the strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7.

Rayan Maarouf, who runs the Suwayda24 anti-government new website, had earlier told AFP there had been strikes on a Syrian army radar position in Sweida province, without specifying their origin.

The latest strikes came as explosions were reported early on Friday in central Iran, with senior US officials reporting an Israeli attack.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported three explosions near a military base in the province of Isfahan. The official news agency IRNA said there was “no major damage”.

Israel warned it would hit back after Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles against Israel overnight on April 13 in an unprecedented attack, which was retaliation for a deadly strike on its Damascus consulate.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Trucks carry the coffins of Revolutionary Guard members killed in an airstrike widely attributed to Israel that destroyed Iran’s Consulate in Syria in a funeral procession in Tehran, Iran on April 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned on April 7 that Israeli embassies are “no longer safe” after a strike in Syria which Tehran blamed on Israel killed seven Revolutionary Guards members.

“The embassies of the Zionist regime are no longer safe,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday’s air strike on Damascus that levelled the Iranian embassy’s consular annex, killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members including two generals.

“The resistance front is ready; how it (the response) will be, we have to wait,” Mr. Safavi said, noting that “confronting this brutal regime is a legal and legitimate right”.

Also Read | India urges Israel to ensure safety and well-being of Indian workers

He also noted that multiple Israeli embassies around the region “have been shuttered”.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Monday’s attack, which Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed 16 people, was the fifth raid on Syria in a week blamed on Israel.

Among the dead were generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi who were senior commanders in the Quds Force, the IRGC’s foreign operations arm.

Zahedi, 63, had held several commands during a career spanning more than 40 years.

He was the most senior Iranian soldier killed since a United States missile strike at Baghdad airport in 2020 killed Quds Force chief General Qasem Soleimani.

Monday’s strike in Damascus took place against the backdrop of the Gaza war which began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel which killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians.

Tehran backs Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the attack which sparked massive Israeli retaliation against the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas-run health ministry in the Palestinian territory says at least 33,175 people have been killed there during six months of war.

Iran does not recognise Israel, and the two countries have fought a shadow war for years.

The Islamic republic accuses Israel of having carried out a wave of sabotage attacks and assassinations targeting its nuclear programme.