Israel Matzav

'Palestinians' name forest after dead terrorist

The March 30 event at Martyr Khalil Al-Wazir Forest was attended by dozens of officials, including Minister of Agriculture Walid Assaf, District Governor of Hebron Kamel Hamid and representatives of the PA Security Forces, as well as several mayors from the Hebron district and relatives of Abu Jihad, Palestinian Media Watch said in a bulletin Sunday.

Abu Jihad, also known as Khalid al-Wazir, was a founding member of Fatah and a deputy to Yasser Arafat. He led the PLO’s military wing, and was responsible for numerous terror attacks that according to PA daily Al-Ayyam killed at least 125 Israelis. His facilitation of the 1978 Coastal Road massacre — the hijacking of a bus that resulted in 37 Israeli deaths, including 12 children — made him one of the most wanted Palestinian terrorists in the world.

Abu Jihad’s son, Jihad Al-Wazir, told the crowd, “All of you are martyr Abu Jihad’s children, and he is freedom in the memories and hearts of every one of you.”

According to Palestinian Media Watch, PA President Mahmoud Abbas also recently decorated Abu Jihad postumously with “the highest order of the Star of Honor.”

When they got ashore, Mossad cars waited for them. Evidently the Mossad had had agents planted in Lebanon for some time before.

They got in the cars and received a report that three Lebanese policemen were unexpectedly patrolling the area in front of the apartments that they were supposed to attack. Ehud Barak made a quick decision to continue with the operation despite the obstacle. A call to headquarters could have easily led to the cancellation of the whole operation.

When they approached their target they got out of the cars and began walking like lovers, as they had planned. No one suspected them for anything else. As they passed the policemen, the policemen didn't even react to them. They got to the apartments and didn't see any guards there. Muki Betser's group went in, climbing the stairs at a half-run. They got to the door of one of the PLO men and set the explosive fuses. They waited for a signal from outside that the other two units had also set their explosives and were ready to act. They got the go-ahead. They lit the fuses and waited. When they would explode Ehud Barak would "report back to the mother ship that the operation began, setting in motion the rest of the IDF forces in Beirut that night."

Just before the fuse went off shooting broke out in the street below. The three units about ready to enter the rooms had no time to deal with that.

Muki Betser describes his part in the raid: "Finally, the explosion blew open the door in a blast of smoke. I burst in with Tzvika, instinctively taking the left-hand turn into the main corridor of the apartment, running down the hall I knew so well from my drills.

Four strides and I reached my target's office. Half a dozen empty chairs faced the desk. Behind it, filing cabinets reminded me that military intelligence wanted any piece of paper we found. To my right, said the architectural plans I memorized, was the master bedroom door. I swung in that direction, just as the door flew open.

The face I knew from three weeks of carrying his picture in my shirt pocket looked at me as I raised my gun. He slammed the door. Bursts from my Uzi and Tzvika's stitched the bedroom door. I rushed forward and kicked through the remains of the door." The PLO man, who was responsible for the Munich massacre of the Israeli athletes, was no more.

They ran quickly down the stairs to deal with the shooting they had heard just before they entered the rooms. The shooting outside was still going on.

The noise grew louder as they leaped, landing to landing, towards the bottom of the stairs and outside the building.

Muki Betser recalls: "Out the front door, I ducked into the shadow of a tree, scanning the intersection just as a burning Lebanese police Land Rover rolled through the intersection. Straight ahead, Amiram Levine in a blonde wig looked like a crazed dancer in the middle of the intersection, his tiny powerful body swinging his Uzi back and forth from target to target.

To my right, Ehud (Barak) stood in the middle of the intersection, doing the same. I added my own fire at the Land Rover, giving Amiram cover for him to run toward me. The Land Rover crashed to a halt against a building. But a second vehicle, a jeep full of reinforcements came screeching into the box of fire we created at the intersection." They took out this jeep as well.

They could hear explosions in the distance. It was, they assumed, Amnon Shahak's paratrooper unit at George Habash's headquarters.

The Mossad cars came screeching to a halt outside of the buildings and the fiery intersection they were waiting at. The Sayeret Matkal units, missions completed, jumped into the cars. Only two minutes had passed since they hit their targets in the buildings. Ehud Barak checked with the other Sayeret Matkal units. No one had been killed, but one commando had been wounded. No news as of then was known of the paratroopers who had attacked George Habash's six-storey building.

"Ehud cut off radio contact and we rushed in a crazy race down the hills of Beirut. The Mossad drivers knew the city and they knew the big American cars well enough to make them slip and slide around the corners as we raced through the city. No whooping and shouting broke out inside the getaway car. Each man sat alone with his thoughts, alert for enemy forces taking chase."

Outside of the neighborhood they had just wreaked havoc in they slowed down. Soon, before they were to turn off the road leading down to the beach, they saw a Lebanese Army troop carrier, scanning the shore. The Sayeret Matkal commandos inside of the Mossad-rented cars were tense as they waited for it to pass. The Lebanese didn't bother with them.

The commandos jumped out of the cars when they got to the beach. The operation had taken a little longer than expected - a half-hour instead of the anticipated 20 minutes.

As they motored out to sea, they found out what had happened. Three of the top PLO leaders they had intended to assassinate were dead. And George Habash's six-storey building was in rubble and ruins. In that raid, which Amnon Shahak had led, two IDF soldiers were killed . Shahak won a medal of valor as he saved the lives of wounded comrades under his command.

They didn't get Arafat, although they thought they might have gotten him there. But they had done what they set out to do.

Operation Spring of Youth is still known as one of the IDF's elite units' finest moments.

Labels: Abu Jihad, Ehud Barak, Yasser Arafat

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:07 PM