Palestinian Commandos Kill 38 Israelis in Coastal Road Attack
Fatah militants from Lebanon hijack buses near Tel Aviv in deadly assault that will trigger massive Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
TEL AVIV - Palestinian commandos infiltrating from Lebanon carried out the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history today, hijacking civilian buses on the coastal highway and killing 38 Israelis, including 13 children, before being stopped in a shootout with security forces.
Eleven Fatah militants landed by boat on a beach near Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, initially killing American photographer Gail Rubin who was taking nature photographs. They then hijacked a taxi and subsequently two buses, forcing drivers toward Tel Aviv while firing at passing vehicles.
“They were shooting at everything that moved,” survivor Omri Shoshani recounted from his hospital bed. “Children were screaming as bullets flew through the bus.”
The attack ended in a fierce gun battle at the Glilot Junction north of Tel Aviv, where Israeli forces established a roadblock. Six attackers died in the exchange of fire, while two others were killed earlier. Nine of the 11 militants were killed; two survived and were captured.
The operation was claimed by Fatah, Yasser Arafat’s faction of the PLO, with spokesman declaring it aimed to “torpedo Sadat’s treasonous peace initiative with the Zionist enemy.”
Prime Minister Menachem Begin, visiting the carnage scene, vowed harsh retaliation: “The blood of Jewish children will not be shed with impunity. We will strike at the murderers wherever they hide.”
The attack’s timing appears designed to derail Egyptian-Israeli peace negotiations following Sadat’s Jerusalem visit. PLO forces in Lebanon, fearing marginalization from a separate peace, seek to provoke Israeli retaliation that might scuttle diplomacy.
Defense Minister Ezer Weizman warned of major military action: “Southern Lebanon has become a terrorist state. We cannot tolerate attacks launched from Lebanese territory.”
The massacre’s brutality—particularly the high number of children killed—has shocked Israeli society. Hospitals report treating over 70 wounded, many in critical condition.
Lebanese government officials, virtually powerless in their own south where the PLO operates freely, braced for Israeli retaliation. Since the PLO’s expulsion from Jordan in 1970, southern Lebanon has become the main base for attacks on Israel.
This attack may trigger the major Israeli military operation that observers have long predicted, potentially drawing Lebanon deeper into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with catastrophic consequences for the fragile Lebanese state.