from Part II - Europe’s Covert War against the Palestinian Armed Struggle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2025
Chapter 4 looks at Mossad’s assassination of Mahmoud al-Hamshari, who was killed in an explosion in his home in Paris on 8 December 1972. The chapter analyses the cables sent by French intelligence that updated Club de Berne members (including Mossad) about the ongoing police investigation. The chapter also looks at Black September attacks that happened in December 1972, one of which was a major attack in Bangkok. Palestinian terrorists planned a simultaneous attack in Scandinavia, which is revealed here for the first time. Another attack targeted Israel’s prime minister via a surface-to-air missile at Rome Fiumicino Airport. If this attack had succeeded, it would probably have counted among the most spectacular terrorist events of the decade. Club de Berne reports about Black September’s preparations for its terrorist activities show that agencies were trying to be one step ahead of the group. A few warnings issued by Mossad at the time are interesting from a contemporary perspective: the agency warned that Palestinians could hijack a plane and crash it into an Israeli city. Mossad thought that a plane could serve as a weapon, as was the case forty years later during 9/11.
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