Operation Wooden Leg
| Operation "Wooden Leg" | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict | |
| Operational scope | Strategic |
| Planned by |
 Israeli Air Force
|
| Objective | Destroy PLO headquarters in Hammam Chott, Tunisia |
| Date | October 1, 1985 |
| Executed by | Eight F-15 Eagles |
| Outcome |
United Nations Security Council Resolution 573. UN Security Council voted to condemn the attack as a flagrant violation of the UN Charter; considered Tunisia had right to reparations. United States abstained. |
| Casualties | Between 47 and 71 killed |
Operation "Wooden Leg" (Hebrew: מבצע רגל עץ Mivtza Regel Etz) was an attack by Israel on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in Hammam Chott, near Tunis, Tunisia, on October 1, 1985. With a target 1,280 miles (2,060 km) from the operation's starting point, this was the most distant action undertaken by the Israel Defense Forces since Operation "Entebbe" in 1976.
After the 1982 Lebanon War, the PLO had been based in Tunisia. On September 25, 1985, during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, gunmen from the PLO's elite Force 17 unit hijacked an Israeli yacht off the coast of Larnaca, Cyprus, and killed the three Israeli tourists on board. The Israelis were allowed to write down their final thoughts before being shot. The nature of the killings provoked widespread shock in Israel. The PLO claimed that the victims were Mossad agents monitoring Palestinian naval traffic out of Cyprus. The attack was a response for the capture and imprisonment of senior Force 17 commander Faisal Abu Sharah by the Israeli Navy two weeks earlier. Sharah had been sailing on the Opportunity, a small ship that regularly shuttled between Beirut and Larnaca, when it was stopped by an Israeli naval patrol boat with Mossad agents on board. Sharah was arrested, taken to Israel and interrogated. He was then tried and given a heavy prison sentence. Since then, the Israeli Navy and the Mossad had intercepted several other vessels and arrested passengers suspected of terrorist activity.
...
Wikipedia