Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted Nadia Cohen, widow of murdered Mossad agent Eli Cohen, at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Thursday.
The PMO announced that this was to commemorate 100 years since Eli Cohen's birth.
During the ceremony, Netanyahu presented Nadia with a framed letter of appreciation for Eli's work and sacrifice, which Nadia requested to be displayed at the Eli Cohen Museum in Herzliya.
Netanyahu added that efforts to retrieve Eli's remains from Syria continue and will "persist until the mission is complete," the PMO added.
Netanyahu also compared this to "the ongoing efforts to bring back all of our hostages, both the living and the fallen."
Also in attendance were Sara Netanyahu, Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing, Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch, Head of the Families Department at the Missing Persons Directorate, Varda Pomerantz, and an unnamed Mossad representative.
Who was Eli Cohen?
Eli Cohen is one of the most famous spies in Israeli history, as he worked his way into the circle of Syrian leadership in the 1960s.
Operating as part of the Mossad, Cohen worked for years to embed himself within the movers and shakers of the Syrian Ba'ath Party. Due to this, he has gained the nickname "our man in Damascus."
However, his career was put to an end when he was discovered by Syrian intelligence and was subsequently executed in 1965.
Since then, his body has remained in Syrian custody, and getting it back has been a goal of Israel for decades.
With the recent collapse of the Assad regime and increased Israeli military activity in Syria, speculation has risen that the Jewish state may attempt to retrieve Cohen's body once more.
Not to be confused with the current Israeli energy minister of the same name, Eli Cohen was born in Egypt, where he spent years as a Zionist activist. It is believed that his espionage activities on behalf of Israel had gone on even then, allegedly playing a role in smuggling Egyptian Jews to Israel and taking part in a false flag operation known as the Lavon Affair.
Cohen assumed the identity of Kamel Amin Thabet, a Syrian businessman returning to his homeland after living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. To build up his credentials, Cohen actually moved to Buenos Aires and established his reputation as a supporter of the Ba'ath Party.
Once in Damascus in 1962, Cohen continued his built-up social life and managed to work his way into the social circle of the Syrian elite. This included throwing parties for them, where he would gather information by pretending to be drunk.
It was in this well-placed position that Cohen was able to relay critical intelligence information up until 1965. In particular, Cohen was very successful in getting the Jewish state information about Syrian military fortifications in the Golan Heights, which played crucial roles in the IDF's success in the Six Day War.
In 2022, Mossad director David Barnea revealed that Syrian intelligence had intercepted a cable sent by Cohen on January 19, just five days before he was caught.
The exact location of Eli Cohen's body is unknown, though it is believed to be in Syria. Israel has long lobbied for its return but to no avail.
Syrian officials have revealed over the years that Cohen's body was actually buried multiple times in order to thwart Israeli efforts to retrieve it.
Despite this, the Mossad was able to, at the very least, retrieve Eli Cohen's wristwatch from Syria in 2018, and it is now displayed in Mossad headquarters.
Aaron Reich contributed to this report