Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Wristwatch Of Executed Israeli Spy Eli Cohen Retrieved From Syria

(JTA) – Half a century after the execution in Syria of the Israeli spy Eli Cohen, Israel’s intelligence services retrieved his wristwatch and returned it to his family, they said.

The wristwatch was retrieved in a recent “special Mossad operation,” a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office Thursday said.

During the annual memorial ceremony for Eli Cohen, which was held several weeks ago, Mossad Director Yossi Cohen returned to the Cohen family the wristwatch that Eli Cohen used in Syria.

The watch is currently on display at the Mossad headquarters as a memorial to the late spy. In September, on the Jewish new year, or Rosh Hashanah, it will be transferred to the custody of the family of the “legendary fighter,” as the statement described Cohen.

After Eli Cohen’s execution on May 18, 1965, the wristwatch remained in “an enemy state,” the statement said. “Research and intelligence operations were carried out which culminated in the unequivocal determination that this was indeed Eli Cohen’s watch,” it also said.

Sophie Ben Dor, the daughter of Eli Cohen, told 103FM radio that the watch was put on sale online and that a Mossad agent traveled to Syria to buy it there after authenticating it.

Levi Eshkol, the late Israeli prime minister, credited the information provided by Cohen with saving countless Israeli lives and “having a great deal to do” with Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six Day War. Among other information he supplied was that Syrian military installations were often found in the shade of eucalyptus trees, allowing for a great improvement in target acquisition in Syria.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.