A newly released video shows the execution of legendary Israeli hero Eli Cohen in Syria.
Footage shot by Syrian television, captured by Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime and given over to Israel, shows the hanging of Israeli spy Eli Cohen in 1965.
Cohen is remembered as one of Israel’s most daring spies who was successful in infiltrating Syria’s highest political and military echelons, thus providing Israel with an ongoing stream of intelligence.
In May 2015, at an event marking 50 years since Cohen’s death, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated: “Two years after Eli’s death, the Six Day War erupted. The value of the intelligence he succeeded in obtaining became apparent then. Prime Minister Levi Eshkol said at the time that ‘Eli Cohen’s actions saved the State of Israel many brigades of [IDF] soldiers.'”
Cohen is buried in Syria, and Netanyahu is continuing efforts to return his body to Israel.
Before his execution, Cohen told an elderly rabbi: “Please tell my family that I fulfilled my mission to its completion, and I stayed faithful to my land and to my people until the very end.”