The head of the International Olympic Committee apologized Wednesday for the organization�s longtime failure to commemorate 11 Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian militants at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Thomas Bach spoke at a ceremony in Tel Aviv marking the 50th anniversary of the deadly attack on the Munich Olympics, two weeks after Germany�s president apologized at a memorial ceremony in Germany for his country�s failures before, during, and after the attack.

On Sept. 5, 1972, the Palestinian group Black September attacked the Israeli Olympic delegation at the Munich Olympic Games, killing 11 Israelis and a police officer.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the athletes were �brutally murdered in cold blood by a Palestinian terrorist organization just for being Jews, just because they were Israelis.�

�This was the moment that the Olympic torch was snuffed out, and the five-ringed flag was stained with blood,� he said.

Bach said the attack in Munich was one of �the darkest days in Olympic history� and an assault on the Olympic Games and its values.

�Everything that the Olympic Games stand for was shattered 50 years ago with the horrific attack on the Israeli Olympic team.� He apologized for the many years it took the International Olympic Committee to commemorate the Israeli victims �in a dignified way.�

A moment of silence was held at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games last year � the first time the Olympic Games� organizers marked the killing of the Israeli athletes in nearly half a century.

�For this pain, and for this anguish, that we caused, I am truly sorry,� Bach said.

Last month the German government reached an agreement to provide the families of the Munich victims a total of 28 million euros (or $27.6 million) in compensation after the families had threatened to boycott this year�s memorial ceremony.

(AP)