He is the master terrorist behind dozens of murderous attacks on innocent civilians.
“His hands are covered with Jewish blood. As far as Israel’s concerned, he was an arch-terrorist. There is no choice but to take him out.”
Tasked with the operation is Israel’s elite special forces unit.
“Sayeret Matkal is nothing short of legendary or mythical, but with their target hiding in an enemy nation 1,500 meters from Israel, this will be one of the most ambitious operations ever mounted. You go in, you kill him, you go out.”
Perfect assassination. This is the true story of the Sayeret Matkal mission to kill Abu Jihad.
In the dead of night, three terrorists infiltrate the Israeli border.
“This was a raid by Palestinians. They armed themselves from a secret weapons cache that the PLO had in Egypt. Carrying AK-47s, they evade the Israeli border patrols. They crossed Israel’s southern Negev desert.”
Their presence remains a secret until when they reach a remote desert road. They hijack a passing car.
“Israeli intelligence receive reports about the car hijacking. They now know armed gunmen are on the loose inside Israel, but they have no idea what their target is. This triggered an enormous security alert in southern Israel. Roadblocks were put up.”
An hour later, the gunman’s car is cited approaching a high-security area. It was not far from Dimona, which is the site of Israel’s nuclear reactor.
“It becomes clear that the terrorists are planning to attack the Dimona reactor, Israel’s most important military facility. Yes, the one where Israel has nuclear weapons but has never admitted that they have nuclear weapons.”
With the top-secret facility at risk, army units race to intercept the terrorists before they can reach their target. Realizing that Israeli forces are closing down on them, the Palestinians suddenly change their plans. The group kidnapped a bus that was bringing workers from the Dimona nuclear reactor back home.
“Some of the passengers managed to escape, but 11 are trapped.”
“10 are women.”
Israeli security forces surround the bus and try to negotiate with the terrorists, but the gunmen are not interested in negotiating. Then they turn their weapons on the hostages.
“Now the security forces have to go in. You know, from here, if you’re not going to respond, more people are going to die.”
First they get into position, then they strike. In a matter of seconds, Israeli soldiers take over the bus, killing all three of the terrorists. But quick as they are, they are not fast enough. Three of the workers at the Dimona plant were killed. Two of the victims are young mothers. It becomes known as the “Mother’s Bus Attack.”
“Even in a nation used to terrorism, this is still a shocking act.”
“The Dimona bus attack was different from what was going on. This one was such a horrific attack that targeted not only innocent people but mothers and women. That really was the most raw nerve in Israel.”
But even as the mourners gather, Israeli intelligence agencies have already identified the man behind the attack. The man they are after is Abu Jihad. In Arabic, Abu Jihad means “Father of the Struggle.” The Israelis know that this is a title used by a leading Palestinian commander. Abu Jihad is a nom de guerre, like a lot of Palestinian names. His real name is Khalil al-Wazir. Abu Jihad is the legendary militant commander of the PLO in the Palestinian organization. Of course, he was admired as one of their top leaders. He is the number two man in the Palestinian Liberation Organization and heads its military wing. Abu Jihad was in charge of operations of Al-Fatah.
“Under Abu Jihad’s command, Al-Fatah have undertaken dozens of attacks on Israel. He had organized and planned some quite significant Palestinian actions. Innocent people have been killed, often in brutal circumstances. As far as Israel’s concerned, he was an arch-terrorist. Abu Jihad was a very dangerous man.”
Abu Jihad is such a threat to Israel that for 20 years they have been trying to take him out. The hunt for Abu Jihad was conducted throughout the years. There were numerous attempts on his life; all of them failed. Israeli military intelligence first tried to kill Abu Jihad in Damascus with a car bomb. They missed. A decade later, the Israeli Air Force tried to kill him in an air strike on Beirut, but again, he walked away. The Mother’s Bus attack is proof that the master terrorist has reared his head once more, but the threat he poses may be worse than just terrorism. The Israelis believe that Abu Jihad is also behind the biggest challenge to their authority that they have ever faced.
“For 3 months, the Palestinian population of Israel has been in revolt. There was this uprising against their rule. There were large crowds of people, often young people, throwing stones at Israeli forces. It had elements of an armed uprising. Its military was in the West Bank dealing with a wide array of protest. It has become known as the Intifada, the uprising, and Israel believes that the hand that controls it is Abu Jihad’s.”
He claimed responsibility for the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada.
“I was the one ordering the troops, ordering the demonstrators to go to the street.”
“Israel cannot allow the insurrection to continue. The Intifada caused an enormous international damage to Israeli prestige worldwide. They felt they have to get back at Abu Jihad. They felt that he couldn’t be allowed to get away with that.”
And the man who decides to deal with Abu Jihad is Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s Minister of Defense, who was basically leading the Israeli intelligence and security forces. Rabin was quite a hardliner. He was a military man through and through.
“His whole concept of peace was based on the fact that Israel had to be strong, and it had to defend itself. He also believed very strongly in targeting those terrorists that were attacking Israelis.”
Rabin decides that Israel must kill Abu Jihad. But immediately, Rabin faces a problem. Abu Jihad is a long way from Israeli shores. Israeli intelligence have traced Abu Jihad to Tunis, North Africa, 1,500 miles from Israel. The city has become the new headquarters for the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
“That was the place where the PLO headquarters was, far away from Israel on the coast of Africa.”
Abu Jihad and other key Palestinian leaders have homes in a quiet suburb of the Tunisian capital.
“He lived with his family in a villa in a beachside neighborhood of Tunis. Being so far away from Israel, Abu Jihad felt quite confident and safe. He didn’t think that Israeli intelligence would be able to get so far, so remotely from Israel, but he is wrong.”
Abu Jihad is already under the watchful eye of Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad.
“Abad, these people are followed, these people are tracked. They knew where he was.”
Israel’s intelligence agency carried out surveillance of the area of Tunis where Abu Jihad was living along with other PLO leaders. Four days after the Mother’s Bus attack, Rabin orders Mossad to come up with a way to kill Abu Jihad. Initially, the agency is confident that they can do it themselves. They told Defense Minister Rabin that they could come up with an operational plan to assassinate Abu Jihad in Tunisia within 30 days. Mossad come up with various alternatives.
“It wasn’t a very good grenade. I mean, I think they were quite weak. I think most of it absorbed by the seating.”
GSG9 must take down the two other terrorists before it’s too late. As one team moves forward, another tries to get the passengers off the plane as quickly as possible.
“They were screaming to get the passengers out and they started coming out in their droves. Initially, the people that were coming out the back door which I could see, they were trying to slide down the ladder.”
At the front of the aircraft, GSG9 slowly advance and corner the most dangerous terrorist in the group, Captain Mahmoud. Mahmoud is in the cockpit area and he’s opened fire with a handgun. He staggers back into the cockpit. He’s still dangerous, reaching for a hand grenade. Three of the cell are now out of action, but there’s still one terrorist missing. There are still explosives on the aircraft. There are still weapons. There’s still a dangerous individual. The missing terrorist is a woman, but where is she?
“Could she be hiding amongst the passengers? Stay where you are.”
The men have to treat everyone as a potential suspect. The GSG9 team have to find her and find her quickly. Inside the plane, the hunt for the missing terrorist continues. They heard the person in there. She’s been hiding in the toilet. The fourth and final terrorist is taken out. The mission is over.
“Springtime.”
Seven minutes after bursting into the plane, Wegener radios in the code word “Springtime.” All of the terrorists are either dead or wounded and the hostages are safely off the plane. Operation Fire Magic has been a complete success.
“Everybody was really elated. We were all patting ourselves on the back and saying how good we were, and we were really pleased.”
Vishnevsky can breathe a sigh of relief. The politicians’ tireless negotiations have played a crucial part in the mission’s success. As the hostages have their first taste of freedom for 6 days, the one surviving terrorist, Souhaila Andrawes, is stretched off the plane, defiant to the end.
“The moment they got Souhaila out, which they thought was dead, she was very much alive and they put her on a stretcher and she put her hands up in the air and two fingers and shouted, ‘Free Palestine.'”
Later that morning, the team whose bravery and expertise had bought 86 hostages their freedom flies back to Germany.
“I didn’t realize Lufthansa had carried so much alcohol and we made really good friends with the gestation on that time coming back.”
Wegener and his team land in Germany to a hero’s welcome. Operation Fire Magic is a massive blow against the morale of the PFLP and its terrorist allies. The mission in Mogadishu sent a message out to the terrorist world that they no longer held all the cards. The German authorities could say now that we are in control and that we can get back at terrorists if they try to strike at us. When the news of GSG9’s success broke, three of the 11 Baader-Meinhof prisoners that Mahmoud had demanded be released commit suicide in prison.
In the following years, special forces teams around the world study Operation Fire Magic as the textbook hostage rescue from a hijacked plane. The GSG9 mission would rank right up there with one of the most successful special operations missions in history because of everything kind of working together: the political side, the intelligence gathering side, negotiators, and the special operations drill that went pretty much flawless. The operation in Mogadishu put GSG9 on the map and gave them a deserved reputation for tactical excellence and for efficiency and they built on that reputation ever since.
