Coastal Road Massacre

The Coastal Road Massacre is the name by which a Palestinian terrorist attack on an Israeli coastal-road bus is known. The attack was masterminded by Abu Jihad and undertaken by PLO faction Fatah . It is the deadliest attack in Israel since its creation in 1948 .

On the morning of March 11 , 1978 , Dalal Mughrabi and her Fedayeen unit of eleven members (including one other woman) landed by zodiac boats on a beach near Maagan Michael north of Tel Aviv . They killed an American photographer (Gail Rubin) who was taking nature pictures nearby and then hijacked a loaded bus on the coastal highway.

Mughrabi and her unit opened fire at the military vehicles in the vicinity. An Israeli army unit, headed by Ehud Barak (who, in the 1990s, became Chief Of The General Staff and later Israeli Prime Minister ) pursued the bus until it was finally stopped near Herzliya . After the ensuing battle in which all terrorists died, 36 more Israelis were killed.

Mughrabi's leadership role in the attack marked the emergence of women as full-fledged members of terrorist movements.

The Palestinian Authority named a Hebron girls' school in honor of Mughrabi. Her name has also been given to summer camps and both police and military courses.

The attack was the immediate trigger for the Israeli Operation Litani against PLO bases in Lebanon three days later.

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Coastal Road Massacre