Misgav Am Hostage Crisis
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Misgav Am hostage crisis, which began during the night of April 7, 1980, was a raid carried out by a squad of five
Palestinian militants Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence or terrorism committed by Palestinians with the intent to accomplish political goals in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Pal ...
belonging to the Iraqi-backed
Arab Liberation Front Arab Liberation Front (ALF; ''Jabhet Al-Tahrir Al-'Arabiyah'') is a minor Palestinian political party, previously controlled by the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which it founded in 1969 as its Palestinian military wing. It was based out of Iraq and tr ...
militant organization, on the northern Israeli
kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
of Misgav Am in which the militants captured a group of toddlers and babies in the children's sleeping quarters of the kibbutz and held them as hostages. The event ended the next day with the takeover of the terrorist stronghold by Israeli special forces. During the incident three Israelis were killed: a two-year-old, and a 38-year-old kibbutz member were murdered, and one Israeli soldier died in a rescue attempt. Four other children, a kibbutz member, and 11 Israeli soldiers were injured during the attack.


Details of the attack

During the night of Monday, April 7, 1980, a squad of five
Palestinian militants Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence or terrorism committed by Palestinians with the intent to accomplish political goals in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Pal ...
, belonging to the Iraqi-backed
Arab Liberation Front Arab Liberation Front (ALF; ''Jabhet Al-Tahrir Al-'Arabiyah'') is a minor Palestinian political party, previously controlled by the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which it founded in 1969 as its Palestinian military wing. It was based out of Iraq and tr ...
militant organization, armed with
AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...
assault rifles and hand grenades, cut the border fence between Israel and Lebanon at around 1:00 am. The squad then crossed the border and managed to sneak into Kibbutz Misgav Am, located in northern Israel. Upon reaching the center of the kibbutz undetected, the squad arrived at the children's sleeping quarters, where children aged 1½ to 3 slept, supervised by some of their parents. At the entrance to the dormitory, the militant squad encountered the kibbutz secretary Sammy (Samuel) Shani, who happened to be at the site repairing the building's light fixtures. With only a screwdriver in his hand, he attempted to block the entrance, but was shot dead by the militants. The militants then entered the building and killed two-year-old Eyal Gluska, and snatched two babies from their cribs (one of whom was Sammy Shani's two-month-old son). The militants ran up to the second floor together with the two babies they took, where they barricaded themselves, and where five more toddlers and an adult named Meir Peretz were sleeping. Kibbutz members managed to rescue several women and children from the building during the raid. At about 2:30 am, Israeli military forces surrounded the dormitory building and began to negotiate with the militants.


Takeover operation

In all, two rescue attempts were made. The first was carried out by the Sayeret Golani unit of the
Golani Brigade The 1st "Golani" Brigade (, ''Hativat Golani'') is an Israeli military infantry brigade. It is subordinated to the 36th Division and traditionally associated with the Northern Command. It is one of the five infantry brigades of the regular Is ...
and failed. During that attempt, the Sayeret Golani team's combat medic, 19 year old Eldad Tsafrir, was killed. Tsafrir's body remained lying at the entrance to the building, as no one was capable of evacuating it. After the first rescue attempt, the militants began using
loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or, more fully, a speaker system) is a combination of one or more speaker drivers, an enclosure, and electrical connections (possibly including a crossover network). The speaker driver is an ...
s to declare their ransom demands. They read the names of prisoners they wanted released from Israeli prisons, they demanded a plane to fly them out of the country, and also asked that the Romanian ambassador be involved in the negotiations. After lengthy negotiations, at around 10:00 pm on April 8, a team from the
Sayeret Matkal Sayeret Matkal () (formerly Unit 269 or Unit 262) (English: General Staff Reconnaissance Unit), is the special reconnaissance unit (''sayeret'') of Israel's General Staff (''matkal''). It is considered one of the premier special forces units of ...
special forces unit, under the command of Major General
Uzi Dayan Aluf (Major General, res.) Uzi Dayan (; born January 4, 1948) is a former general in the Israel Defense Forces and an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Likud from 2020 to 2021. Biography Uzi Dayan is a nephew of Moshe ...
, broke into the building through several openings and retook the building in a raid that lasted only two minutes. During this takeover, all of the militants were killed and all hostages were rescued. Six Sayeret Matkal soldiers were injured during the takeover. During the operation, one of the militants shot Meir Peretz in his legs, while Peretz was tied up and lying on the floor, and then blew himself up using a
hand grenade A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...
.


Victims


Israeli civilian fatalities

* Eyal Gluska, 2, of Misgav Am * Sammy (Samuel) Shani, 36, of Misgav Am


Israeli military fatalities

* Sgt. Eldad Tsafrir, 19, of
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...


The perpetrators

In an announcement in
Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...
after the attack, the Iraqi-backed
Arab Liberation Front Arab Liberation Front (ALF; ''Jabhet Al-Tahrir Al-'Arabiyah'') is a minor Palestinian political party, previously controlled by the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which it founded in 1969 as its Palestinian military wing. It was based out of Iraq and tr ...
, a radical guerrilla group within the
PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...
, claimed responsibility for the attack and stated that the action was carried out with the aim of releasing 50 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.


Israeli retaliation

Following the attack, Israel carried out Operation High Voltage () on April 17, 1980, in which seaborne Israeli
Shayetet 13 Shayetet 13 () is a naval commando unit of the Israeli Navy and one of the primary sayeret, reconnaissance units of the Israel Defense Forces. Shayetet 13 specializes in sea-to-land incursions, counter-terrorism, sabotage, maritime intelligence ...
commandos raided and destroyed the Ras el-Sheikh Palestinian guerrilla base in southern Lebanon (20 kilometers north of Tyre and about 40 kilometers north of the Israeli border). An IDF spokesman stated that the base was used as a supply center and staging base for terror raids in Israel. Six guerrillas were killed during the operation.


See also

*
Palestinian political violence Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence or terrorism committed by Palestinians with the intent to accomplish political goals in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Pal ...


References


External links


"Palestinians seize hostages in Israel"
– published in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' on April 7, 1980
"Nursery attacked at Israel kibbutz"
– published in ''
The Beaver County Times ''The Beaver County Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, United States, serving suburban Beaver County northwest of Pittsburgh. It is the sole newspaper covering Beaver County. The ''Times'' has previously produc ...
'' on April 7, 1980
"Raid on Israel settlement"
– published in the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' on April 7, 1980
"Israelis Storm Babies' Dorm, Kill Palestinians"
– published in the Spencer ''Daily Reporter'' on April 7, 1980 {{Palestinian militancy attacks in the 1980s Terrorist incidents in Asia in 1980 Iraq–Israel relations Terrorist attacks attributed to Palestinian militant groups Hostage taking in Israel 1980 murders in Israel Terrorist incidents in Israel in the 1980s Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon Child murder in Israel Grenade attacks in Israel Suicide bombings in 1980 Suicide bombings in Israel Attacks on residential buildings in Asia Attacks on buildings and structures in Israel Attacks on buildings and structures in 1980