Two Palestinian officials told AFP on Monday that Israel, via Russian mediators, was seeking to locate in Syria the remains of famous Israeli spy Eli Cohen and missing soldiers.
Israel for years has been trying to find and repatriate the body of Cohen, and in 2021 a war monitor said Russian forces had been searching the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus for his remains, along with those of two Israeli soldiers.
A Palestinian official in Damascus on Monday said "contact was established with us via mediators in order for us to help find the remains of an Israeli soldier who has been missing since 1982", without identifying the missing soldier.
"Contacts are also underway to determine the location where the remains of the Israeli agent known as Eli Cohen are buried," the source added, requesting anonymity as the matter is sensitive.
A Palestinian official outside Syria, also requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the mediation was being conducted by Russia with Palestinian officials based abroad.
Cohen was tried and hanged for espionage by the Syrians in 1965 after he infiltrated the top levels of the government.
The information Cohen obtained was seen as having played a key role in Israel's conquest of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and his story was the subject of 2019 Netflix series "The Spy" starring Sacha Baron Cohen.
In 2021, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was working to repatriate Cohen's remains, three years after the country's Mossad intelligence agency said it had retrieved a watch belonging to Cohen and brought it back to Israel.
Syria and Israel have long been bitter foes with no diplomatic relations, but Russia -- which was close to ousted president Bashar al-Assad -- has acted as intermediary between the two.
In 2019, Israel released two Syrian prisoners in a "goodwill gesture" after the remains of soldier Zachary Baumel, missing since 1982, were returned.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the remains had been found by the Russian and Syrian armies, but a Syrian official denied Damascus had knowledge of the repatriation plans or details behind the discovery.
Israeli soldiers fought against Syrian forces in a battle in June 1982 in the Lebanese village of Sultan Yacoub, near the Syrian border.
Baumel and two other soldiers, Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, had since been listed as missing and presumed killed. The latter two remain missing.
With AFP
Comments