1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon

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The 1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon, to target terrorism, code-named Operation Gift (Hebrew: מבצע תשורה‎), was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Special Forces operation against Beirut International Airport on the night of December 27 - 28, 1968. The commandos from the Army's elite Sayeret Matkal destroyed 13 civilian airplanes belonging to Middle East Airlines (MEA) in response to an attack on an Israeli airliner in Athens by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).¹ There were no casualties reported.²

Background

On 22 July 1968, militants hijacked El Al Flight 426 on its way from Rome to Tel Aviv, and forced the pilot to land in Algiers. About four months later, in the early afternoon of 26 December, two militants who had arrived in Athens from Beirut International Airport, fired at an El Al plane about to take off from Athens Airport. As a result, an Israeli citizen was killed, a stewardess was wounded and the plane damaged. A spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), whose headquarters was in Beirut, announced that the operation was carried out by his organization.

In response, IDF commandos took over part of Beirut Airport and destroyed 13 aircraft belonging to Middle East Airlines (MEA).³

References

^ Time (July 13, 2006). "The Risks of Israel's Two-Front War". Retrieved May 30, 2008.
^ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (August 13, 2000). "THE WAR OF ATTRITION AND THE CEASE FIRE - INTRODUCTION". Retrieved May 30, 2008.
^ Naber, Nadine. "U.S.-Israeli War on Lebanon". Critical Moment. http://criticalmoment.org/issue18/naber. : "In 1968, Israel bombed the Beirut International Airport, destroying 13 Middle East airline planes."

External links

"IDF report". Archived from the original on 2006-04-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20060430032701/http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/mainpage.asp?sl=EN&id=5&from=history&docid=23040&Pos=20&bScope=false. , link inactive

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[0] Time (July 13, 2006). "The Risks of Israel's Two-Front War". Retrieved May 30, 2008.

[1] Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (August 13, 2000). "THE WAR OF ATTRITION AND THE CEASE FIRE - INTRODUCTION". Retrieved May 30, 2008.

[2] Naber, Nadine. "U.S.-Israeli War on Lebanon". Critical Moment. http://criticalmoment.org/issue18/naber. : "In 1968, Israel bombed the Beirut International Airport, destroying 13 Middle East airline planes."

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