It was a cold night 50 years ago when an Israeli commando team led by a man disguised as a woman infiltrated a posh Beirut neighborhood and shot and killed three top officials from the Palestine Liberation Organization in their apartments.
The anniversary is little noted, but the April 10, 1973, operation has a relevance that continues today.
On the night of April 9, 1973, Adwan’s wife Maha Jayousi was suffering from a toothache and went to bed in the room of their young children. Adwan usually worked late and had a planned meeting with some PLO officials that night, said Jayousi, describing that night to The Associated Press. She spoke from Jordan, where she has lived since the raid.
Jayousi went to her balcony and shouted to Najjar, who lived in the building across the alley - not realizing that Najjar and his wife had also been killed. Jayousi said that weeks before the raid, she had noticed unknown people coming to their building’s parking area and that people across the street were taking pictures of their building. She said Adwan was concerned and told her he would ask for protection to be boosted.
The Israelis landed on Beirut’s coast in boats and were met by Mossad agents, posing as tourists, who drove them to the neighborhood of Verdun. The raid stoked already enflamed divisions among Lebanese between supporters and opponents of the PLO and other Palestinian factions. The Palestinian groups had adopted Lebanon as their base in 1970, relocating there after being expelled from Jordan and three years after Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. From Lebanon, they were staging attacks inside Israel.
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