Forty-eight years ago, on September 5, 1972, two members of the Israeli Olympic team were murdered and nine were taken hostage and subsequently murdered in the course of the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.

The acts were perpetrated by eight members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, who demanded the release of 234 Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails and the West German-held founders of the Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.

Days of negotiations ensued and a rescue operation ended in failure and the murders of all the hostages.

Five of the Black September terrorists and a West German policeman were killed during the rescue attempt. The three surviving terrorists were arrested but then released the next month by the West German government following the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615.

Later that year, Israeli Prime Minister Gold Meir authorized the launching of Operation “Wrath of G-d,” a secret Mossad operation to assassinate those involved in the massacre, an operation believed to have extended over 20 years.

🕯#OTD 48 yrs ago, 11 members of 🇮🇱's team to the #Munich Olympics were taken hostage & murdered.

Moshe Weinberg
Yossef Romano
Ze'ev Friedman
David Berger
Yakov Springer
Eliezer Halfin
Yossef Gutfreund
Kehat Shorr
Mark Slavin
Andre Spitzer
Amitzur Shapirapic.twitter.com/HP3zAieoJj

— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) September 5, 2020

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)