Middle East Terrorist Incidents (1968-1973)

Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	... and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 1
23 July 1968	El Al plane hijacked	Plane forced to	2 Palestinians,	Freed
	on flight from	land at Algiers.	1 Syrian.	quickly.
	Rome to Lod.	21 Israel i and 11	Apprehended by
		crew members	Algerian
		detained for five	authorities.
		weeks.
INCIDENT NO. 2
26 December 1968	Gunfire attack on	1 Israeli passenger	2 Palestinians.	Freed after the
	El Al plane at	killed; I stewardess	Sentenced to	Olympic Airways
	Athens airport.	wounded.	17 and 14 years	hijacking in July
			imprisonment	1970 (see Incident
			respectively.	No. 17 below).
INCIDENT NO. 3
18 February 1969	Gunfire attack on	Co-pilot killed;	5 Palestinians.	1 woman freed
	El Al plane at	pilot wounded.	1 killed and 4	quickly.
	Zurich airport.		arrested.	3 men freed after
			1 (a woman) freed	the Zerqa affair in
			quickly; the three	September 1970
			men sentenced	(see Incident No.
			to 12 years	19 below).
			imprisonment with
			hard labour.
INCIDENT NO. 4
22 May 1969	Attempt to	Forestalled.	2 Arabs (a man	Freed after three
	assassinate		and a woman)	weeks on the
	David Ben-Gurion		and 1 Swede	ground that
	in Copenhagen.		arrested by	"intent to kill" was
			Danish authorities.	not sufficient
				reason for charging
				them.
INCIDENT NO. 5
23 August 1969	Attack on the	Abortive.	2 Jordanian	Unknown.
	Israeli Commercial		students injured by
	Fair at Izmir.		the bomb employed
			in the attack.
			1 died from injuries;
			1 arrested.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	...and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 6
29 August 1969	TWA plane hijacked	6 Israeli passengers	2 Palestinians.	Not brought to trial
	from Los Angeles,	detained, two of
	forced to land at	whom held until 5
	Damascus, where it	December 1969.
	was sabotaged.
INCIDENT NO. 7
8 September 1969	Hand-grenade	Damage to building.	2 Arab boys, one	One boy took
	attack on El Al		of them 13 years	refuge in the
	office in Brussels.		old. Both recruited	Iraqi Embassy,
			by A I-Fatah.	which helped him
				to escape.
INCIDENT NO. 8
27 November 1969	Hand-grenade	1 Greek child	2 Jordanians.	Freed after the
	attack on El Al	killed; 13 persons	Sentenced to 11	Olympic Airways
	office in Athens.	wounded.	and 8 years	hijacking in July
			imprisonment	1970 (see Incident
			respectively.	No. 17 below).
INCIDENT NO. 9
5 December 1969	Attack planned on	Forestalled.	4 terrorists	Unknown.
	plane at London		arrested.
	airport.
INCIDENT NO. 10
17 December 1969	Attack planned on	Forestalled.	2 British nationals.	I still in gaol.
	an El Al plane at		I sentenced to 10
	London airport.		years imprisonment;
			the other turned
			"Queen's" evidence.
INCIDENT NO. 11
21 December 1969	Attempt to hijack	Abortive.	3 Lebanese detained.	Freed after the
	a TWA plane in			Olympic Airways
	Athens.			hijacking in July
				1970 (see Incident
				No. 17 below).
INCIDENT NO. 12
9 January 1970	TWA plane hijacked	Plane released.	1 Frenchman.	Freed after a
	to Beirut from Paris.			few days.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 13
10 February 1970	Attack on airport	I Israel i passenger	2 Jordanians;	Freed after the Zerqa
	bus headed for	killed; 8 others	1 Egyptian.	affair in September
	El Al plane at	wounded.		1970 (see Incident
	Munich airport.			No. 19 below).
INCIDENT NO. 14
17 February 1970	Conspiracy to	Abortive.	1 Jordanian and	Released after less
	hijack an El Al		2 Iraqis arrested on	than 2 months.
	plane at Munich		arrival by plane at
	airport.		Munich airport.
			Sentenced to 3
			months imprisonment.
INCIDENT NO. 15
4 May 1970	Attack on Israeli	Wife of Israeli	2 Palestinians.	Released after
	Embassy at	diplomat killed;	Sentenced to 3	serving sentences.
	Asuncion (Paraguay).	1 secretary	years imprisonment.
		wounded.
INCIDENT NO. 16
23 June 1970	Attacks planned on	Forestalled.	1 Arab arrested in	Still in gaol.
	hotels in Israel.		Israel.
			Sentenced to 12
			years imprisonment.
INCIDENT NO. 17
22 July 1970	Olympic Airlines	Greek authorities	6 members of	None was brought
	plane hijacked to	set free 7 convicted	Palestine Popular	to justice, but 7
	Beirut from Athens.	Arab terrorists.	Struggle Front.	convicted Arab
				terrorists were set
				free by the Greek
				authorities (see
				Incidents 2, 8 & 11
				above).
INCIDENT NO. 18
6 September 1970	Attempt to hijack	Abortive, but	2 members of	Leila Khaled freed
	El Al plane from	1 El Al steward	Popular Front for	after the Zerqa
	Amsterdam to	wounded. Of the	the Liberation of	affair (see Incident
	New York.	hijackers, 1 killed	Palestine (PFLP).	No. 19 below).
		and Leila Khaled
		wounded.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 19
6 September 1970	3 planes (Pan Am	All three planes	Members of PFLP.	None was brought to
	TWA and Swissair)	were blown up.		justice. But 7 Arab
	with a total of 400	Arab terrorists		terrorists imprisoned
	passengers, hijacked	imprisoned in		in Britain, West
	on flights to New	various countries		Germany and
	York from	set free.		Switzerland were
	Brussels,			set free (see Incidents
	Frankfurt and			Nos. 3, 13 & 18
	Zurich respectively.			above).
	The TWA and
	Swissair planes
	forced to land at
	Zerqa in Jordan;
	the Pan Am plane
	in Cairo.
INCIDENT NO. 20
9 September 1970	BOAC plane	Plane blown up.	Members of PF LP.	None was brought
	hijacked on flight			to justice (see
	from Bombay to			Incident No. 19
	Rome, and forced			above).
	to land at Zerqa
	in Jordan.
INCIDENT NO. 21
17 December 1970	Conspiracy to	Forestalled.	5 terrorists.	Served three months
	sabotage an El Al		Arrested on board	imprisonment.
	plane.		a Yugoslav plane
			during a stop-over
			in Munich.
INCIDENT NO. 22
29 December 1970	Attacks planned on	Forestalled.	2 Arabs arrested.	Unknown.
	targets in West
	Germany and
	Switzerland.
INCIDENT NO. 23
3 January 1971	Suitcase full of	Forestalled.	1 person arrested.	F reed
	arms discovered			quickly.
	in Italy.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	... and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 24
19 April 1971	Attacks planned on	Forestalled.	Elderly French	Elderly couple
	hotels in Israel.		couple, 2 sisters	reprieved , on
			from Morocco, and	grounds of health
			1 Frenchman	and age. Others
			arrested on arrival	serving 10, 12 and
			in Israel, All	17 year terms in gaol.
			sentenced to
			varying lengths of
			imprisonment.
INCIDENT NO. 25
23 June 1971	Attack on Jordanian		1 Arab arrested.	Unknown.
	target in Paris.
INCIDENT NO. 26
4 October 1971	Attempt to hijack	Abortive.	2 Palestinians	Unknown.
	an Alia plane		(one a young
	(Jordanian) in		woman) arrested.
	Beirut.
INCIDENT NO. 27
28 November 1971	Prime Minister of	Wasfi Tal murdered.	4 members of Black	Freed in January
	Jordan Wasfi Tal		September, arrested	1973.
	attacked in Cairo.		in Cairo.
INCIDENT NO. 28
19 February 1972	Attempt to hijack	Abortive.	1 Arab arrested.	Unknown.
	an Alia plane
	(Jordanian) in
	Cairo.
INCIDENT NO. 29
8 May 1972	Sabena plane	Plane and	4 Palestinian	Two men were
	hijacked on flight	passengers released	terrorists (two men	killed by security
	from Brussels, and	by Israeli authorities.	and two women).	guards at Lod
	forced to land at			airport. The two
	Lod.			women are serving
				life imprisonment
				in Israel.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 30
28 May 1972	Lebanese woman in	Forestalled.	1 Lebanese woman.	Freed and expelled
	possession of arms			to Beirut.
	apprehended in
	Rome. Plans
	unknown.
INCIDENT NO. 31
30 May 1972	Three Japanese	27 persons killed,	3 Japanese	2 Japanese killed
	terrorists machine-	80 wounded. Most	despatched by	by security guards
	gun pilgrims and	of the victims were	PFLP.	at Lod airport.
	other passengers	Puerto Rican		1 serving life
	at Lod airport.	pilgrims.		imprisonment
				in Israel.
INCIDENT NO. 32
16 August 1972	Booby-trapped	Explosion in	2 British girls,	2 Arabs freed.
	gramophone on	luggage	unaware that the
	El Al plane on	compartment,	gramophone given
	flight from Rome	causing slight	to them by 2 Arab
	to Lod.	damage.	acquaintances in
			Rome was booby-
			trapped.
			The 2 Arabs were
			arrested in Italy.
INCIDENT NO. 33
5 September 1972	Seizure of Israeli	11 Israeli	7 Arabs, of whom	3 Arabs freed after
	athletes in Olympic	athletes murdered.	4 killed at airport	hijacking of
	Village near Munich.		near Munich and	Lufthansa plane
			3 arrested.	in October 1972
				(see Incident No.
				34 below).
INCIDENT NO. 34
29 October 1972	Lufthansa plane on	Plane released,	Members of Al-	None brought to
	flight from Beirut	after the Arab	Fatah acting under	trial.
	to Ankara hijacked	terrorists who had	the cover-name of
	to Zagreb.	murdered 11	"National Youth
		Israeli athletes at	Group for the
		the Munich	Liberation of
		Olympics had been	Palestine".
		set free.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 35
23 October 1972	Algerian "diplomatic	Forestalled.	1 Palestinian (on	Freed.
	courier" arrested in		Algerian diplomatic
	Amsterdam airport		passport).
	for carrying arms.
	Plans unknown.
INCIDENT NO. 36
24 December 1972	Palestinian arrested	Forestalled.	1 Palestinian.	Sentenced to 18
	at London airport;			months imprisonment.
	planned attacks on			Released after one
	Israeli Embassies in			year.
	Scandinavia.
INCIDENT NO. 37
9 January 1973	Conspiracy to attack	Forestalled.	4 Arabs arrested in	Freed.
	targets in Haifa		Cyprus.
	where group
	intended to arrive
	by ship.
INCIDENT NO. 38
20 January 1973	Attack planned on	Forestalled.	3 Arabs arrested	Given suspended
	transit camp in		in Vienna.	prison sentences,
	Austria for Jewish			and expelled from
	immigrants from			Austria.
	Russia.
INCIDENT NO. 39
30 January 1973	Attack planned as	Forestalled.	3 Arabs arrested	Given suspended
	in Incident No. 38		in Italy at border	sentences, and
	above.		with Austria.	expelled from Italy.
INCIDENT NO. 40
1 March 1973	Saudi-Arabian	The American	8 Palestinians	Not yet brought to
	Embassy at	Ambassador and	arrested by	trial.
	Khartoum (Sudan)	Deputy Head of	Sudanese
	seized.	Mission, and the	authorities.
		Belgian Charge
		d'Affaires,
		murdered.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 41
15 March 1973	Attack planned on	Forestalled.	2 Arabs arrested by	2 Arabs imprisoned
	Israeli and		French police at	for 6 months and
	Jordanian Embassies		French-Italian	expelled from
	in Paris.		border, leading to	France. 2 others
			the arrest of I	freed and expelled
			Palestinian and 1	immediately.
			English doctor in
			Paris.
INCIDENT NO. 42
4 April 1973	Attempt to attack	Abortive.	2 Arabs, who were	Freed and sent
	passengers of E I Al		arrested at the	back to Lebanon.
	plane at Rome		airport.
	airport.
INCIDENT NO. 43
9 April 1973	Attempt to attack	Abortive.	4 Arabs.	Sentenced to 6
	Arkia plane (Israeli)			years impris-
	at Nicosia airport			onment, but set
	and attack on			free in context
	Israeli Ambassador's			of KLM hijacking
	residence in Nicosia.			in November (see
				Incident No. 56
				below).
INCIDENT NO. 44
27 April 1973	Attack on an Italian	Italian clerk	1 Palestinian.	Not yet brought to
	clerk of the El Al	murdered.		trial, since he is
	office in Rome.			alleged to be unfit
				to stand trial.
INCIDENT NO. 45
27 April 1973	3 Arabs apprehended	Forestalled.	3 Arabs.	Unknown.
	at Beirut airport
	carrying explosives
	on board plane
	bound for Nice.
	Plans unknown.
INCIDENT NO. 46
20 May 1973	Letter bombs sent		2 Arabs arrested	Interrogated and
	to Jewish and Israeli		by British police.	expelled from
	addresses in Britain			Britain two days
	and Holland.			later.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 47
17 June 1973	Car parked near	Forestalled.	2 Arabs arrested.	Freed without trial.
	El Al office in Rome
	exploded and 2
	Arabs injured in it.
INCIDENT NO. 48
19 July 1973	Attack on El Al	Abortive.	I Palestinian.	Freed and allowed
	office in Athens.	Terrorist took two		to fly to Kuwait,
		hostages in		whence he departed
		adjoining hotel, but		immediately for
		released them after		unknown destination.
		negotiations with
		police.
INCIDENT NO. 49
20 July 1973	Japanese Jumbo jet	Plane blown up at	5 terrorists. One	Not yet brought to
	hijacked on flight	Tripoli airport	of them, apparently	trial.
	from Amsterdam to	(Libya).	the leader, an Arab
	Tokyo.		girl, was killed by a
			grenade that she
			carried. Another
			was a Japanese.
INCIDENT NO. 50
5 August 1973	Machine-gunning	5 dead,	2 Palestinians.	Sentenced to death,
	passengers in lounge	55 wounded.		with right to appeal.

				subsequently
				agreed to commute
				their sentences
				after 3 Arabs
				pirated a Greek
				freighter at
				Karachi on
				2 February 1974.
INCIDENT NO. 51
5 September 1973	Attack planned on	Forestalled.	5 Palestinians	2 released on bail.
	El Al plane over		arrested in Rome.	Trial opened on 14
	Rome airport with			December, but the 2
	ground-to-air rockets			released on bail did
	supplied by the			not appear.
	Soviet Union to
	Egypt, Iraq and
	Syria.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 52
5 September 1973	Saudi-Arabian	French authorities	5 Arabs arrested	Handed over to
	Embassy at Paris	allowed perpetrators	by Kuwaiti	Palestine Liberation
	attacked.	to fly from France	authorities.	Organization on
		with 6 Saudi		11 October 1973.
		diplomats as
		hostages. The group
		reached Kuwait
		aboard a Syrian
		plane.
INCIDENT NO. 53
11 September 1973	1 member of Al-	Forestalled.	I Arab	Freed after
	Fatah arrested by			interrogation.
	Australian authorities.
	Plans unknown.
INCIDENT NO. 54
28 September 1973	3 Jewish immigrants	Hostages released	2 Palestinians	Freed and flown
	from Russia taken	after Austrian	arrested by	to an Arab
	hostage, aboard	Government	Austrian	country.
	train bound for	promised to close	authorities.
	Vienna.	transit camp at
		Schonau for Russian
		immigrants en
		route to Israel.
INCIDENT NO. 55
26 October 1973	4 Arabs in	Forestalled.	4 Arabs.	Not yet brought
	possession of			to trial.
	explosives arrested
	by West German
	authorities.
	Plans unknown.
INCIDENT NO. 56
25 November 1973	KLM Jumbo on	Perpetrators	3 Arabs.	Not known if
	flight to New Delhi	surrendered at		arrested by Abu
	hijacked to	Abu Dhabi and		Dhabi authorities.
	Abu Dhabi.	Jumbo released.


Date	Act	Outcome	Perpetrators	and their treatment

INCIDENT NO. 57
2 December 1973	Weapons and	Forestalled.	2 Palestinians,	Not yet brought to
	explosives brought		1 Algerian and	trial,
	into France for		1 Turk arrested
	unknown purposes.		by French
			authorities.
INCIDENT NO. 58
17 December 1973	Attack on Pan	32 passengers	5 Arabs arrested	Apparently
	American and	killed. The Pan-	by Kuwaiti	handed over to
	Lufthansa planes	American plane	authorities.	Palestine
	at Rome airport.	was badly damaged		Liberation
		and the Lufthansa		Organization after
		plane hijacked with		Kuwaitis refused to
		13 hostages aboard,		extradite them to
		of whom 1 died		Italy.
		before the plane
		reached Kuwait.
INCIDENT NO. 59
20 December 1973	Various plans	Forestalled.	10 Turks,	Not yet brought to
	shown on maps		1 Palestinian,	trial.
	seized.		I Algerian
			arrested in villa
			near Paris.
INCIDENT NO. 60
29 December 1973	2 Arabs	Forestalled.	2 Arabs.	Freed after
	arrested at			interrogation.
	London airport.
	Plans unknown.

Source: Israeli Foreign Ministry

Terrorism: Middle East Terrorist Incidents

(1968 - 1973)