Operation Spring of Youth
Operation Spring of Youth (Hebrew: מבצע אביב נעורים, 'Mivtsa Aviv Neurim') was an operation carried out as part of a much larger operation, Operation Wrath of God. The objective was to eliminate the perpetrators who massacred 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics. On the night of between the 9th and 10th of April 1973, the Israeli special forces unit, "Sayeret Matkal", the paratroop forces, and the naval commando raided several targets of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut and Sidon in Lebanon, and killed 20 members of the PLO, including Yasser Arafat's deputy Abu Youssef.
30.10.17
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Conduct of the operation
Operation Spring of Youth was launched a few hours after the attack on the Israeli ambassador's house in Cyprus and the attempt to divert an Israeli Akira Airlines airplane that was on the ground in the Nicosia International Airport. However, the raid had been planned and organized prior to the terrorist attacks, and aimed at the elimination of three Fatah leaders - Yasser Arafat's deputy and Fatah's number two, Mohammed Youssef al-Najjar Youssef; Kamal Adwan, who was responsible for the attacks in Israel; and Kamal Nasser, the PLO spokesman.
The operation was led by the Chief of Infantry and Paratroopers Corps, Brigadier General Emmanuel Shaked. Among the commanders of the mobilized military forces was Lieutenant-Colonel Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, commander of the parachutist battalion of Nahal, and Lieutenant-Colonel Ehud Barak, commander of the Sayeret Matkal, who landed on the Beirut beach with the first soldiers, and entered the city disguised as a young woman.
The forces left the Haifa port and arrived on the Beirut beach in the evening on inflatable boats launched from missile launches. Mossad agents were already waiting for the fighters at the landing site in luxurious American cars leased the day before. The soldiers were divided into several groups, and each group proceeded to its destination.
The targets were: a seven-storey building which served as a barracks for the terrorists and housed the headquarters of the Popular Front; two Fatah leaders’ houses, guarded by dozens of armed terrorists; the headquarters of Fatah, which was responsible for the attacks in the Gaza Strip; and two weapons manufacturing workshops.
The forces left the port of Haifa on board nine missile launches in the late afternoon and arrived on the beach in Beirut in the evening on inflatable boats
The operation lasted two and a half hours, during which three PLO leaders were neutralized in their apartments. Dozens of terrorists were killed. Israeli soldiers also found important documents in the terrorist apartments.
Two combat soldiers from Amnon Lipkin-Shahak's forces were killed during the operation. They were praised after the mission by the Chief of the General Staff for their leadership.
