April 16, 1988
Khalil al-Wazir, known as Abu Jihad, is assassinated at his Tunis home by commandos from the Israel Defense Forces’ elite Sayeret Maktal unit in an elaborate plan. The IDF does not acknowledge its role and release details until 2012.
Future Prime Minister Ehud Barak and future IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon are integrally involved with the plan, which involves ferrying commandos to the Tunisian shoreline so they can make their way to al-Wazir’s home. Nahum Lev, the commander of the operation, and a soldier dressed as a woman pretend to be a couple on vacation. Lev hides a gun in a box of chocolates. He eventuallt shoots al-Wazir “with a long burst of fire.”
Al-Wazir founded Fatah, a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, with Yasser Arafat. Al-Wazir’s most notorious operations against Israel were the 1975 Savoy Hotel massacre, which killed 11 Israelis, and the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, which killed 38 Israelis. He developed the Palestinian military infrastructure and was credited with being the mastermind behind the militant cells that waged the First Intifada in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
His involvement in organizing the First Intifada in 1987 led to the Israeli decision to assassinate him.
