Fatah boasts of murderous “heroic Savoy operation” in 1975, exaggerates Israeli death toll
Fatah-run Awdah TV narrator: “On March 5, 1975, two squads of Fatah Movement self-sacrificing fighters carried out the Savoy Hotel operation (i.e., terror attack, 8 murdered). Martyr commander ‘Abu Jihad’ (i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of 125) planned the operation… The goal of the operation was to reach the Israeli Ministry of Defense and take those inside hostage to exchange them for Palestinian and Arab prisoners in the occupation’s prisons. After they did not succeed in reaching the Israeli Ministry of Defense building, the squads succeeded in taking control of the Savoy Hotel and taking those inside hostage… After the occupation’s special forces arrived, the self-sacrificing fighters waged an epic confrontation and blew up the hotel. The operation led to the death of more than 100 Israelis (sic., 8).”
[Website of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, March 21, 2023]
Headline on Fatah website: “The heroic Savoy operation of Fatah’s self-sacrificing fighters”
Video title on Awdah TV YouTube channel: “The 48th anniversary of the heroic Savoy operationcarried out by the Fatah Movement”
Savoy terror attack: Eight terrorists traveled by boat from Lebanon to a Tel Aviv beach in March 1975, took over the Savoy Hotel - killing 3 during the takeover - and took guests and staff as hostages. The next morning, when Israeli forces carried out a rescue operation, the terrorists murdered 5 hostages and 3 soldiers; 5 hostages were freed. Seven of the terrorists were killed during the operation; the eighth, Musa Juma Al-Tallka, was captured and sentenced to death by hanging, which was commuted to a life sentence, but was released in a prisoner exchange in November 1983.
Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) - was a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks in the 1960’s - 1980’s. These attacks, in which a total of 125 Israelis were murdered, included the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.