1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon
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| Operation Spring of Youth | |||||||
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| Part of the Operation Wrath of God | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Sayeret Matkal
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PLO | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 2 killed | PLO: 12-100 killed | ||||||
| 3 civilian casualties | |||||||
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The 1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon (code-named Operation Spring of Youth) took place on the night of April 9 and early morning of April 10, 1973 when Israel Defense Forces special forces units attacked several Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) targets in Beirut and Sidon, Lebanon.
The operation is generally considered to be part of the retaliation for the Munich Massacre at the Summer Olympics in 1972.[1]
The Israeli Sayeret Matkal forces arrived at the Lebanese beaches in Zodiac boats launched from missile ships offshore. Mossad agents awaited the forces on the beaches with cars rented the previous day, and then drove them to their targets and later back to the beaches for extraction.
During the operation, three of the highest-level PLO leaders, surprised at home, were killed, along with other PLO militants (reports of actual number killed range up to 100)[citation needed]. Several Lebanese security people and civilian neighbors were also killed. Two Israeli soldiers were killed by defending militants.
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[edit] Main target
The main target was a pair of seven-story buildings in the fashionable neighborhood of Verdun in West Beirut. These buildings were residential housing for both British and Italian families amongst other Arab families. The building housed Muhammad Youssef Al-Najjar (Abu Youssef). The second seven-storey building was on the opposite side of the road and was residential. There were two targets in this building, Kamal Adwan and Kamal Nasser.
The team attacking the target was mostly based on Sayeret Matkal commandos, led by then unit-commander Ehud Barak. (Barak later became IDF Chief of Staff and subsequently Prime Minister). The attacking team also included Yonatan Netanyahu, who became unit commander two years later and became known for leading the hostage rescue operation in Entebbe in which he was killed. The team approached the buildings disguised as civilians and couples. (Barak was disguised as a brunette woman.)[2] In the building, the team killed three PLO and Black September leaders:
- Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar (Abu Youssef) - an operations leader in the militant group Black September the group responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre. He was also a PLO veteran, previously head of the Lebanese Fatah branches, head of Fatah internal intelligence organization. His latest duties were head of the PLO's political department and one of Yasser Arafat's deputies (third in line of Fatah's leadership).
- Kamal Adwan - a PLO chief of operations, responsible for armed militant activities against Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
- Kamal Nasser - Poet, PLO spokesman and member of the PLO Executive Committee.[3]
During the operation, four others were also killed: an Italian woman who lived in the building, Abu Youssef's wife, and two Lebanese police officers.
[edit] Secondary targets
A separate nearby target was a multi-story building which housed militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The attacking team had 14 commandos, mainly Sayeret Tzanhanim Commando paratroopers led by Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who later succeeded Barak as IDF Chief of Staff. The attacking team met strong resistance early on, and two of its soldiers were killed. Despite this resistance, the force was able to bomb the building. Lipkin-Shahak was also decorated for bravery for his conduct in this operation.
[edit] Popular culture
Operation Spring of Youth was featured in the 2005 Academy Awards nominated film Munich.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/books/15masl.html
- ^ Jean Genet, Prisoner of Love. London: Pan Books, 1989. ISBN 0330 29962 X. pp. 157-161. Describes the attackers who killed Kamal Adwan as: 'two English-speaking hippies with fair curly hair ...their arms around one another's necks, laughing and exchanging kisses...The guards shouted insults at the two shocking queers... etc'.
- ^ Alan Hart, Arafat, terrorist or peacemaker?. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984. ISBN 978-0-283-99008-3. pp. 361-363. Quotes Abu Iyad on the killing of Kamal Nasser:'Because Kamal was our spokesman they finished him off by spraying bullets around his mouth. And before they left the Israelis laid out his body as though he was hanging on a cross.'[Nasser was a Christian].
[edit] External links
- Bregman, Ahron (2002). Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28716-2
- "Jewish Virtual Library": Detailed Israeli viewpoint and eyewitness accounts
- "Journal of Counterterrorism & Security International": Includes background material on the 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre and Israel's hunt for its perpetrators.
- Simon, Bob. "An Eye For An Eye: Should The U.S. Use This As A Model?", CBS News, 21 November 2001. Includes short testimonies by Barak and Adwan's daughter.
- "Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem": History of IDF operations vs. Palestinians from a Palestinian viewpoint, including this operation.
