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Coastal Road massacre

Coastal Road massacre
Part of Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon
1978-bus-attack01.jpg
Remains of hijacked bus
The attack site is located in Israel
The attack site
The attack site
Location Coastal Highway near Tel Aviv
Coordinates 32°8′52.64″N 34°48′11.35″E / 32.1479556°N 34.8031528°E / 32.1479556; 34.8031528
Date March 11, 1978
Attack type
Mass murder, spree killing, shooting attack
Weapons Various weapons, possible grenade
Deaths 39 (38 civilians including 13 children, 1 Israeli soldier) + 9 attackers
Non-fatal injuries
71 wounded.
Perpetrator 11 Palestinian assailants. The Palestine Liberation Organization claimed responsibility.

The Coastal Road massacre of 1978 was an attack involving the hijacking of a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway in which 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, were killed, and 71 were wounded. The attack was planned by Abu Jihad and carried out by the PLO faction Fatah. The plan was to seize a luxury hotel in Tel Aviv and take tourists and foreign ambassadors hostage in order to exchange them for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. According to a Fatah commander who had helped to plan the attack, the timing was aimed at scuppering the Israeli-Egyptian peace talks between Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat and damaging tourism in Israel. However, due to a navigation error, the attackers ended up 40 miles (64 km) north of their target, and were forced to find alternative transportation to their destination.

Time magazine characterized it as "the worst terrorist attack in Israel's history." Fatah called the hijacking "Operation of the Martyr Kamal Adwan", after the PLO chief of operations killed in the Israeli commando raid on Beirut in April 1973. In response, the Israeli military forces launched Operation Litani against PLO bases in Lebanon three days later.

On March 9, 1978, 13 Palestinian Fedayeen from Fatah, including Dalal Mughrabi, left Lebanon on a boat headed for the Israeli coastline. They were equipped with Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, light mortars and high explosives. On March 11, they transferred to two Zodiac boats and headed towards the shore. One of the Zodiacs capsized in the rough weather, and two of the militants drowned, but the surviving 11 carried on with their mission. The terrorists landed on a beach near the kibbutz Ma'agan Michael, north of Tel Aviv. They met American photographer Gail Rubin, who was taking nature photographs on the beach, and asked her where they were. After she told them, they killed her. Both surviving attackers claimed that Mughrabi shot Rubin, who was the niece of US Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff.


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Wikipedia

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