Lebanese reports on return of Mossad spy's remains prove false

Lebanese media reports suggesting Syrian rebels have located the remains of a Mossad spy executed in Damascus in the mid 1960s and plan to return them to Israel have proven false.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation reported Wednesday that officials with the rebel group claimed it located the remains of Eli Cohen, who was hanged in 1965 after being convicted of espionage.

The report was not corroborated by any official Israeli, Lebanese or Syrian source, and a few hours later, LBC removed the item from its website.

The report followed the release of never before seen footage of Cohen's execution, which surfaced on a Facebook page affiliated with the Syrian opposition on Tuesday.

The page, "Syrian art treasures" published video footage that appears to have been taken on May 18, 1965, the day of Cohen's execution.

The video shows Cohen's lifeless body hanging from the gallows, as the masses gather in a public square to bear witness to the execution. His body is shown wrapped in a cloth displaying Cohen's crimes in Arabic and brought down from the gallows to be laid in a coffin. The video shows Cohen's coffin then being lifted onto a military vehicle that later drives off to an unknown location.

Claims were made that Cohen's body was buried under the central square in Damascus, now an urban area featuring buildings and roads.

Cohen's exact place of burial remains unknown to this day.

Cohen's widow, Nadia, still reeling from the release of the video, said Wednesday that no government official had contacted her over the potential recovery of her husband's remains, telling Israel Hayom that, as much as she longs to have Cohen buried in Israel, it should not be achieved at all cost.

"I won't have the remains of the father of my children returned home in exchange for the release of murderers with blood on their hands.

"I know the man I married, who was brutally taken from me when I was just 24, a young mother, wouldn't want that. This will not be Gilad Schalit 2," she said, referring the 2011 prisoner exchange deal to security the release of an Israeli soldier from Hamas captivity, under which 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners were released.

Commenting on the LBC report, she said, "I'm still very confused and stunned; over the years there have been many appeals to the Syrian government and people to release Eli's remains, so the first thing that came to mind was that this report was not credible."

Cohen said she believes the report was psychological warfare by the Syrian government.

"I think they're just toying with us. They want to keep torturing us, because the agony over every such report is excruciating. Seeing Eli's bones buried in Israel -- that would be a miracle. I pray for it to happen, but in the meantime these [reports] are very upsetting."

Commenting on the possibility that any future exchange deal would seek to secure her husband's remains, Cohen said, "Should this day come, it will be a complex and emotional one. But we have to bring him home first. I want to believe that I will go to sleep and wake up with a great sense of relief and a smile on my face. That hasn't happened in a very long time."

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