Two Palestinian officials told AFP on Monday that they had been contacted to help Israel locate the remains in Syria of the famous spy Eli Cohen and an Israeli soldier missing since 1982. Another Palestinian official, based outside Syria and who also requesting anonymity, said mediation was being done through the Russians and with Palestinian officials based abroad.
Israel has been trying for years to find and repatriate the remains of legendary spy Eli Cohen, hanged in a public square in Syria in 1965, after having infiltrated the circles of power in Damascus. In the summer of 2018, Israeli secret services confirmed having recovered the watch worn by Eli Cohen in an “enemy country”.
Information had also emerged concerning negotiations between Israel and Russia, a country close to the power of Bashar al-Assad, overthrown on December 8, regarding the return to Israel of other personal objects, even the remains of the spy.
The story of this incredible infiltration was brought to the screen in a series broadcast on Netflix, The Spy. Sacha Baron Cohen played Eli Cohen.
Furthermore, in April 2019, Israel announced the restitution of the remains of soldier Zachary Baumel, missing since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The remains were found by the Russian and Syrian armies, said Russian President Vladimir Putin. Israel then released two prisoners in exchange.
Two other soldiers, Yehouda Katz and Tzvi Feldman, remain missing since the battle between Israeli and Syrian forces at Sultan Yacoub, Lebanon, on June 11, 1982, during which several Israeli soldiers were killed or captured.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), Russian forces attempted in the past to exhume graves in the cemetery of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, in search of the remains of two Israeli soldiers and Eli Cohen.
