JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has for the first time admitted assassinating the PLO’s former number two, Abu Jihad, in a raid on the movement’s Tunis headquarters in 1988, a newspaper reported yesterday. The report, published in Israel’s top-selling Yediot Aharonot, said the operation was planned by the Mossad spy agency and carried out by the [...]

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JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has for the first time admitted assassinating the PLO’s former number two, Abu Jihad, in a raid on the movement’s Tunis headquarters in 1988, a newspaper reported yesterday. The report, published in Israel’s top-selling Yediot Aharonot, said the operation was planned by the Mossad spy agency and carried out by the Sayeret Matkal elite commando unit.
Abu Jihad, whose real name was Khalil al Wazir, was shot dead in the early hours of April 16, 1988 in a commando raid on the PLO headquarters by what was presumed to be Israeli agents.

The operation was commanded by Nahum Lev who, in an interview before his death in 2000, spoke frankly about his role in the operation although it was never published.

At the time, Yitzhak Shamir was premier, and the defence minister was Yitzhak Rabin, who later served as prime minister until he was killed by a rightwing extremist in 1995.

Ehud Barak, the current defence minister, was the deputy chief of staff at the time, and Moshe Yaalon, now strategic affairs minister, was the unit commander of Sayeret Matkal.

Details outlined in the report show that 26 Sayeret Matkal commandos arrived on the beach in Tunis on the evening of April 15 and separated into two groups who were transported by car to a spot less than 500 metres from Abu Jihad’s house.

Lev and another commando disguised as a woman approached the house as if they were a couple out for an evening stroll.

On finding the first bodyguard dozing outside in a car, Lev shot him in the head with a gun equipped with a silencer that had been hidden in a large box of chocolates. “When the other combatants received the signal that the outside guard had been neutralised, the members of the second group approached with equipment to break open the villa’s door. They rushed inside, wearing masks,” it said.

One of the agents ran up the stairs with Lev behind him.

“He shot Abu Jihad first,” Lev said. “It looked like he was holding a gun. Then I shot him, a long burst, careful not to hurt his wife who showed up. He died. Other combatants confirmed the kill.”




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