Following the attack on the Munich Olympics, Operation “Wrath of God” begins
On 5 September 1972, on the eleventh day of the Olympic Games (OG) in Munich, Germany, the Palestinian Black September commando entered the Israeli delegation’s accommodation and killed two athletes, before taking nine others hostage. The kidnapping lasted all day and ended with an assault by the German police and the deaths of all the hostages, five members of the commando and a West German policeman. With the approval of Labour Prime Minister Golda Meir, Israel launched Operation Wrath of God, with the aim of eliminating Black September members and Palestine Liberation Organization fighters suspected of involvement in the Munich attack. Over the next twenty years, Mossad units responsible for this mission killed a dozen Palestinians and nationals of Arab countries across Europe. In the Middle East, in 1982 Israel invaded civil war-torn southern Lebanon, where PLO executives found refuge. In response to this invasion, Hezbollah, a Shiite movement supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran, was created. The charismatic leader of the movement, Abbas Moussaoui, was killed in 1992 in a missile attack carried out by Israeli helicopters.
- Main objectives of Operation “Wrath of God”: October 16, 1972 – Abdel Wael Zwaiter – PLO representative in Rome.
December 8, 1972 – Mahmoud Hamchari – Representative of Fatah and the PLO in Paris. April 6, 1973 – Basil Al-Kubaïsi –Iraqi academic, PFLP member, assassinated in Paris.
April 9, 1973: Kamal Nasser; Mahmoud Youssef Najjer; Kemal Adwan Senior Fatah leaders assassinated in Beirut.
June 28, 1973 – Mohamed Boudia – Algerian separatist committed to the Palestinian cause, assassinated in Paris. March 28, 1978 – Wadie Haddad –Co-founder of the PFLP, he was allegedly poisoned by the Mossad in the German Democratic Republic. January 22, 1979 – Ali Hassan Salameh –Chief of operations of the Black September group, assassinated in Beirut.
June 8, 1992 – Atef Bseiso –Senior Fatah official. - March 22, 1990 – Gerald Bull – Canadian ballistics expert, former employee of NASA and the US Department of Defense, was hired in the 1980s by Saddam Hussein’s regime to design and test a supergun that could hit both Tehran and Tel Aviv. Shot dead outside his home in Brussels.
- February 16, 1992 – Abbas Moussaoui – Secretary-General of Hezbollah from 1990 to 1992. Killed by fire from an Israeli helicopter targeting the convoy he was travelling with in southern Lebanon. Replaced by Hassan Nasrallah.
