Chapter 1
This story is about the most secretive operation of Mossad, the secret service agency of Israel. Code-named ‘Wrath Of God’, this operation was conducted by Mossad spanning across different countries where they eliminated most of the persons involved in the killing of 11 players during the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Israel is geographically placed in such an area where it is surrounded by hostile countries. It has made its secret service Mossad so strong that the neighbouring countries do not dare to indulge with Israel. The persons working for this organization are highly trained and equipped with all the latest technological gadgets.
This is one such country that does not tolerate any pressure from terrorist organizations. Mossad has the capability of eliminating any person considered to be a threat to the country.
The 1972 Munich Olympics was organized on a large scale to showcase the emergence of new Germany. They have named the games as Olympics of Peace and Joy. About 7134 athletes from various countries participated in this Olympics to demonstrate healthy competition in different sporting event at the highest level.
Though there were few security personals all in plain clothes they were not armed. There was not much of a security cover for athletes.
Chapter 2
Olympics started with a great opening ceremony where athletes from Israeli delegation also participated in the parade on 26-Aug-1972. The first week of the games went off peacefully. On 05-Sep-1972, at about 4.30 AM, about 8 persons carrying duffle bags and wearing tracksuits similar to athletes residing at the Olympic village scaled the high wall of the village.
They were already aware of the part of the village allocated for athletes from Israel. So these strangers headed straight towards the rooms. They took out guns and ordered the athletes to stay calm. Realizing the threat two athletes got hold of a nearby knife and pounced those strangers.
These strangers were heavily armed they opened fire killing those two athletes instantly. They surrounded other remaining 9 athletes and took them hostages. German police immediately surrounded the village. It was revealed that these strangers belonged to Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Later that day, these terrorists placed the demand to the government of Israel for releasing about 234 PLO prisoners lying in different Israeli prisons, in exchange of the athletes failing which they will be executing all the athletes.
PLO was established in 1964 by Yasser Arafat to destroy Israel completely. Soon they unleashed numerous terror attacks on Israel. Israel on their part captured some of the members of this dreaded organization and stashed them in prisons. It is for the rescue of these prisoners the attack by PLO was carried out on the Israeli athletes.
Chapter 3
PLO was established in 1964 by Yasser Arafat to destroy Israel completely. Soon they unleashed numerous terror attacks on Israel. Israel on their part captured some of the members of this dreaded organization and stashed them in prisons. It is for the rescue of these prisoners the attack by PLO was carried out on the Israeli athletes.
Learning about the attacks the Olympic committee president Mr Brundage declared that the games must go on as scheduled, even if 9 Israeli athletes taken hostage and 2 of the athletes dead in the Olympic village. Finally, after considering the implications after 10 hours the Olympic committee decided to suspend the games.
Israel has zero-tolerance policy against terror; hence they refused to release the PLO prisoners. Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir told that they will not accept any demands from the terrorists.
When this message reached the terrorists they pushed out bodies of two players already killed in the attack, outside the door to pressurize the government of Israel. They declared that they will be executing remaining players one by one if their demands are not met. That did not deter Israel and they remained firm to their policy of zero tolerance.
As this incident occurred during Olympic games, so all the media attention of the world was towards this terrorist attack and all eyes were on Israel next step to resolve the issue.
Chapter 4
Israel surrenders to terrorist demands and saves the hostage athletes or would they retaliate. There were a lot of media speculations and the world was following the events.
Israel had already made their stand clear, that they would not be accepting the demands of the terrorists. Would the athletes be executed or any other way will emerge to solve this crisis.
Israel government requested German officials for permission to send their special forces to rescue the hostage athletes but Germany refused, believing that in an event like Olympics any further mishap would certainly bring more criticism for the country.
Time was running out and talks with terrorists were failing. Germany decided to send its officers to attack terrorists and rescue them, but it soon came to light that the rescue mission was broadcasted live and that terrorists were aware of every move.
After a few more days when negotiations failed, terrorists placed a new demand to be flown to Egypt along with the hostages and provided safe passage. Germany accepted this demand of the terrorists thinking that once these terrorists are moved out of the Olympic village it would be easier for them to ambush them at the airport.
Six security personnel disguised as flight crew was placed and about 5 snipers were deployed at the airport to ambush them. The terrorists along with hostages arrived in two helicopters at the airport.
The flight crew of the plane decided to abandon their mission at the last moment without any consultations. Helicopters landed at about 10.30 PM and the terrorists boarded the empty plane.
Chapter 5
Realizing that this might be a trap, they ran back towards the helicopters. The snipers opened fire, amidst all these mayhem terrorists threw a grenade at the first helicopter killing the hostages and the pilot. The remaining hostages in the second helicopter were also gunned down by these heavily armed terrorists.
This operation resulted in the death of 5 terrorists, 1 sniper a pilot of the helicopter and all the 9 hostages. Remaining 3 terrorists were captured by Germans. The world was stunned by this report and Israel was fuming with anger.
In the meeting that followed, it was decided that Israel would find and neutralize all the personnel involved in hatching this hostage operation. Entire secret service was pressed hard to bring information related to the persons involved in funding, planning and other activities related to this hostage operation.
The list finally takes shape with names of the suspected people linked to this hostage episode. It was found that these people are spread across the world hiding in different countries but associated with PLO.
A team of secret agents was formed to carry out the task and the operation was code-named ‘Wrath Of God’. They were given different passports and identities with the sole objective to find and hunt down the persons named in the list.
People hatching this hostage plot were aware that Israel would retaliate, hence most of them went underground and there were few whose security cover was enhanced.
Chapter 6
Finding and reaching them was difficult for these secret agents. Operation ‘Wrath Of God’ started, about a month and a half later the secret service lay their hands on the first person. Wael Zwaiter, residing in Rome, when this person was returning from dinner, two secret service agents lay an ambush and shoots him dead.
The second target was Mahmoud Hamshari, a PLO official at France. After obtaining all the information, a lady secret service personal disguised as a reporter requested him on for an interview. When he was away from his apartment giving the interview, other secret agents enters his apartment and plant a bomb under his desk phone.
When the PLO official returns a call is made to the phone to ensure that the voice of the person matches. A detonation signal was sent down the telephone line, causing the bomb to explode, he was wounded but a few days later succumbed to the injuries of the blast.
Hussein Al Bashir, the Fatah representative in Cyprus was living in a hotel where he used to stay only during the night. A duplicate key was prepared and a bomb was planted under his bed. As soon as he turned off the lights in his hotel room the bomb planted under his bed was remotely detonated, killing him and destroying the room.
On the night of April 9, 1973, three commandos landed on the coast of Lebanon. The commandos were disguised as women. In Beirut, they raided a guarded apartment building and killed Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar. Two other members, Abdel Hamid Shibi and Abdel Hadi Nakaa were seriously injured when their car was bombed in Rome.
On June 28, 1973, Mohammad Boudia, the Algerian-born PLO member residing in France, was killed in Paris by a pressure-activated bomb packed with heavy nuts and bolts placed under his car seat. On December 15, 1979, two more Palestinians, Ali Salem Ahmed and Ibrahim Abdul Aziz were executed in Cyprus with silenced weapons at point-blank range.
Chapter 7
Mossad continued to search for Ali Hassan Salameh, the mastermind of this dreaded attack. They launched an operation in small Norwegian town Lillehammer. They killed a hotel waiter mistakenly identified as Salameh. Six agents including a woman were arrested by the local police only to be released later at the insistence of Israel.
Mossad continued their surveillance of Salameh’s movements and tracking him to Beirut during late 1978. A wagon full of explosives was parked on the street when Salameh was passing through the street the explosive was detonated killing him and his bodyguards instantly.
PLO managed to hijack Lufthansa Flight 615 and managed to free these three terrorists lying in a German prison, in exchange for the flight hostages. These terrorists went into hiding in Libya. Mossad continued their surveillance and executed two of these terrorists.
Though one of the terrorists manage to escape to Tunisia and was untraced. Salameh also had planned to assassinate Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir. They planned to destroy the plane carrying the Prime Minister along with other cabinet ministers with missiles in Rome.
Mossad was able to foil this assassination attempt, by decoding a telephonic conversation that was in Arabic. The operation ‘Wrath Of God’ that lasted almost 20 years, Israel executed most of the members involved in the Munich Olympic massacre of their athletes.
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