Fatah commemorates anniversary of most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history that killed 37
Text and image posted on the website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission
Headline: “37 years since the Kamal Adwan operation (i.e., bus hijacking and killing of 37) led by Martyr (Shahida) Dalal Mughrabi and her friends”
“Today, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, is the 37th anniversary of the Kamal Adwan operation, planned by the Martyr ‘Abu Jihad’ Khalil Al-Wazir, led by Martyr Dalal Mughrabi, together with 12 self-sacrificing fighters (Fedayeen). Martyr Dalal Mughrabi is one of the most famous female Palestinian fighters. She was born in 1958 in one of the refugee camps in Beirut, daughter of a family from Jaffa that escaped to Lebanon following the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of 1948.
Dalal received an elementary and pre-high school education from UNRWA schools in the refugee camp, and while still in school she decided to join the ranks of the Palestinian revolution and to operate in the ranks of the self-sacrificing fighters of the Fatah movement. She took many army courses and lessons in guerilla fighting, during which she was trained in different types of weapons. During these courses, she became known for her courage, bravery, fierce national sentiment, and her devotion to Palestine and the Fatah movement.
The assassination of the three Fatah leaders, Kamal Adwan, Kamal Nasser, and Abu Yusuf Al-Najjar, by the Israelis in 1973 adversely affected Dalal. This, alongside the continuous and heinous aggression she experienced in the Palestinian refugee camps, left her with feelings of bitterness and anger… These strong negative feelings started to disturb Dalal, as they did her other peers and companions in sorrow from among the residents of the refugee camps, which led to the determination to do something about it.
The Deir Yassin group put the planning in the hands of Martyr Commander Khalil Al-Wazir ‘Abu Jihad,’ and the group was designated to carry out an operation (i.e., attack), in the framework of which it would disembark at the Palestinian coast, take over a military bus, and turn toward Tel Aviv with the goal of attacking the Knesset building. (sic., The Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, is located in Jerusalem –Ed.) The Palestinian self-sacrificing fighters, led by 20-year-old Dalal Mughrabi, competed among themselves to participate.
Dalal was chosen to head the group that would carry out the operation and which included ten self-sacrificing fighters. The operation was named ‘Operation Kamal Adwan’ and the group was called ‘Deir Yassin.’
The morning of March 11, 1978, Dalal and her group disembarked from a boat that passed in front of the Palestinian coast… and the disembarkation and approach to shore succeeded without the Israelis discovering them, because they underestimated the courage of the Palestinians.
Dalal and her group succeeded in reaching Tel Aviv and took over the bus, with all its soldier passengers (sic, most of the passengers on the bus were civilians –Ed.), while continuing to fight soldiers outside the bus. This operation led to hundreds of dead (sic., 37 people died in the massacre, including 12 children, and 70 were wounded –Ed.) and injured on the Israeli side, and due to the heavy losses the [Israeli] government appointed a special military unit under the command of Ehud Barak, to stop the bus and kill or arrest its passengers. The group used airplanes and tanks to surround the self-sacrificing fighters, which pushed Dalal Mughrabi to blow up the bus with its passengers, and led to the death of the Israeli soldiers (sic, most of the passengers on the bus were civilians –Ed.).”
Notes: 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 planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks killing 125 Israelis. This included the most lethal in Israeli history, the hijacking of a bus and killing of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.
Dalal Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway, killing 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.
Coastal Road Massacre - In March 1978, a group of Fatah terrorists from Lebanon led by Dalal Mughrabi hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway. Confronted by the Israeli army, the terrorists killed many of the passengers on the bus, in total 37 civilians,12 of them children, and wounded more than 70. The attack, orchestrated by arch-terrorist Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir), is known in Israel as the Coastal Road Massacre.
Abu Yusuf Al-Najjar was Arafat's deputy and among the founders of Fatah. He was the Commander of Al-Asifa, Fatah’s military unit, and member of Fatah’s Central Committee and PLO’s Executive Committee. He also was the Commander of Operations of the terrorist organization Black September and involved in the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (Sept. 5, 1972). He was killed by Israel in 1973.