Agencies Tel Aviv 

Documents and personal items belonging to famed Israeli spy Eli Cohen have been brought back to Israel from Syria to mark the 60th anniversary of his public execution in Damascus, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office has said.

The Prime Minister's Office on Sunday said that in a covert and complex Mossad operation, in cooperation with an allied foreign intelligence service, the official Syrian archive on Eli Cohen, which had thousands of findings that were held for decades by the Syrian security forces in a highly compartmentalized manner, were brought to Israel.

The PMO said that the special archive includes approximately 2,500 original documents, photographs and personal items, most of which have been revealed for the first time. The material was brought to Israel close to the emotional and symbolic 60th anniversary of his execution on 18 May 1965, in a main square in Damascus.

As per a report in the Times of Isreal, Cohen who was born in Egypt to a Jewish family, joined the Mossad in the early 1960s and infiltrated the top echelons of Syria's political leadership under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet. The intelligence he obtained over four years was credited with playing a key role in Israel's stunning success in the 1967 Six Day War, particularly in the capture of the Golan Heights.

Cohen was tried and executed by the Syrian government for espionage on May 18, 1965, and the Times of Israel report said that his body has never been recovered, despite repeated efforts over the years by successive Israeli governments and the Mossad.

During a meeting between Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea, several original documents and personal items that were located in Syria, were presented to Eli Cohen's widow, Nadia. 

As per the PMO, these included the original will written by Eli Cohen himself, hours before his execution, only a copy of which had been shown openly up until now. It was noted that the material was collected by Syrian intelligence after his capture in January 1965.