Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / True Crime Documentary - Mossad's Deadliest Mission： The Hunt for al-Wazir

Transcript

True Crime Documentary - Mossad's Deadliest Mission： The Hunt for al-Wazir · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:02
Speaker 1: He is the master terrorist behind dozens of murderous attacks
0:06
Speaker 1: on innocent civilians.
0:10
Speaker 2: His hens are covered with Jewish blood.
0:15
Speaker 3: As far as Israel's concerned, he was an arch terrorist.
0:18
Speaker 1: There is no choice but to take him out. Tasked
0:23
Speaker 1: with the operation is Israel's elite special forces unit.
0:31
Speaker 3: Sarah matkhal Is. Nothing sure of legendary or mythical, but
0:35
Speaker 3: with their.
0:35
Speaker 1: Target hiding in an enemy nation fifteen hundred miles from Israel,
0:39
Speaker 1: this will be one of the most ambitious operations ever mounted.
0:44
Speaker 2: You go in, you kill him, you go out, perfect consisillation.
0:53
Speaker 1: This is the true story of the Syret matt Cow
0:55
Speaker 1: mission to kill Abu Jahad. In the dead of night,
1:37
Speaker 1: three terrorists infiltrate the Israeli border. This was a raid
1:45
Speaker 1: by Palestinians.
1:48
Speaker 4: They armed themselves from a secret weapons cache that the
1:52
Speaker 4: PLO had in Egypt.
1:55
Speaker 1: Carrying AK forty seven's, they obeyed the Israeli border patrols.
2:00
Speaker 4: They crossed israel southern Negev Desert.
2:06
Speaker 1: Their presence remains a secret until when they reach a
2:10
Speaker 1: remote desert road, they hijack a passing car. Israeli intelligence
2:35
Speaker 1: receive reports about the car hijacking. They now know armed
2:40
Speaker 1: gunmen are on the loose inside Israel, but they have
2:44
Speaker 1: no idea what their target is.
2:48
Speaker 4: This triggered an enormous security alert in southern Israel. Roadblocks
2:53
Speaker 4: were put up.
2:57
Speaker 1: An hour later, the gunman's car is sited a pro
3:00
Speaker 1: a high security area.
3:02
Speaker 5: It was not far from Demona, which is the site
3:06
Speaker 5: of is as nuclear reactor.
3:11
Speaker 1: It becomes clear that the terrorists are planning to attack
3:14
Speaker 1: the Demona Reactor, Israel's most important military facility as.
3:20
Speaker 4: The one where Israel has nuclear weapons but has never
3:23
Speaker 4: admitted that they have nuclear weapons.
3:29
Speaker 1: With the top secret facility at risk, army units race
3:32
Speaker 1: to intercept the terrorists before they can reach their target.
3:37
Speaker 1: Realizing that Israeli forces are closing down on them, the
3:41
Speaker 1: Palestinians suddenly change their plans.
3:51
Speaker 2: The group kidnapped the bus that was bringing workers from
3:54
Speaker 2: the demonar and nuclear reactor of Beacon.
4:00
Speaker 1: Some of the passengers manage to escape, but eleven are trapped,
4:10
Speaker 1: ten are women. Israeli security forces surround the bus and
4:20
Speaker 1: try to negotiate with the terrorists, but the gunmen are
4:27
Speaker 1: not interested in negotiating. Then they turn their weapons on
4:34
Speaker 1: the hostages. Now the security forces have to go in.
4:48
Speaker 6: You know from here. If you're not gonna respond, more
4:52
Speaker 6: people are gonna die.
4:54
Speaker 1: First they get into position, then they strike. In a
5:09
Speaker 1: matter of seconds, is Rady soldiers take over the bus,
5:12
Speaker 1: killing all three of the terrorists. But quick as they are,
5:23
Speaker 1: they are not fast enough.
5:30
Speaker 4: Three of the workers at the Demona plant were killed.
5:35
Speaker 1: Two of the victims are young mothers. It becomes known
5:41
Speaker 1: as the Mother's bus attack. Even in a nation used
5:51
Speaker 1: to terrorism, this is still a shocking act.
5:58
Speaker 5: The Tigmona bus attack, it was different from what was
6:02
Speaker 5: going on.
6:04
Speaker 3: This one was such a horrific attack that targeted not
6:07
Speaker 3: only innocent people, but mothers and women. That's really I
6:11
Speaker 3: was the most unnerve in Israel.
6:15
Speaker 1: But even as the monas gather, Israeli intelligence agencies have
6:19
Speaker 1: already identified the man behind the attack. The man they
6:31
Speaker 1: are after is Abu Jahad. In Arabic, abu Jahad means
6:37
Speaker 1: father of the struggle. The Israelis know that this is
6:40
Speaker 1: a title used by a leading Palestinian commander.
6:44
Speaker 5: How would you head is a mom de guirl with
6:46
Speaker 5: the other Palestinian names. His real name is Halilu wazir.
6:51
Speaker 2: Ab would you Hud is the legendary militant commander of
6:55
Speaker 2: the plow.
6:57
Speaker 3: In the Palestinian Organization. Of course, he was admired as
7:00
Speaker 3: one of their top leaders.
7:02
Speaker 1: He is the number two man in the Palestinian Liberation
7:05
Speaker 1: Organization and heads its military wing.
7:11
Speaker 7: Abu Jiyad was in charge of operation of Helfatah.
7:19
Speaker 1: Under Abu Jahad's command, El Fata have undertaken dozens of
7:23
Speaker 1: attacks on Israel.
7:25
Speaker 5: He had organized and planned some quite significant Pardiston elections.
7:32
Speaker 5: Innocent people have been killed off their brutal circumstances.
7:36
Speaker 3: As far as Israel Is concerned, he was an arch terrorist.
7:40
Speaker 4: Abu Jihad was a very dangerous man.
7:47
Speaker 1: Abu Jahad is such a threat to Israel that for
7:50
Speaker 1: twenty years they have been trying to take him out.
7:54
Speaker 2: The hand for Abu Jihad was conducted throughout the years.
7:58
Speaker 2: There were numerous attempts on his life, all of them fail.
8:06
Speaker 1: Israeli military intelligence first tried to kill Abu Jahad in
8:10
Speaker 1: Damascus with a carbon they missed. A decade later, the
8:19
Speaker 1: Israeli Air Force tried to kill him in an air
8:21
Speaker 1: strike on Beirut, but again he walked away. The Mother's
8:31
Speaker 1: bus attack is proof that the master terrorist has raied
8:34
Speaker 1: his head once more, but the threat he poses may
8:38
Speaker 1: be worse than just terrorism. The Israelis believe that Abu
8:44
Speaker 1: Jahad is also behind the biggest challenge to their authority
8:48
Speaker 1: that they have ever faced. For three months, the Palestinian
8:56
Speaker 1: population of Israel has been in revolt.
9:01
Speaker 5: There was this uprising against their rule. There were large
9:05
Speaker 5: crowds of people, often known people throwing stones at Israeli forces,
9:10
Speaker 5: had elements of an armed uprising.
9:13
Speaker 3: Its military was in West Bank dealing with a wide
9:16
Speaker 3: array of protesting.
9:19
Speaker 1: It has become known as the inter father the uprising,
9:23
Speaker 1: and Israel believes that the hand that controls it is
9:26
Speaker 1: Abu Jahats.
9:30
Speaker 2: He claimed responsibility for the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada.
9:37
Speaker 2: He said, I was the one ordering the troops, ordering
9:41
Speaker 2: the demonstrators to go to the street.
9:48
Speaker 1: Israel cannot allow the insurrection to continue.
9:52
Speaker 2: The Intifada caused an enormous international damage to Israeli prestige worldwide.
10:00
Speaker 4: They felt they have to get back at Abu Jahad.
10:03
Speaker 4: They felt that he couldn't be allowed to get away.
10:05
Speaker 1: With them, and the man who decides to deal with
10:09
Speaker 1: Abu Jahad is yet Zak Rabin. Israel's Minister of Defense.
10:16
Speaker 2: Skakabik, who was basically leading the Israeli intelligence and security forces.
10:23
Speaker 5: Rabin was quite a hard liner.
10:25
Speaker 1: He was a military man.
10:26
Speaker 3: And through his whole concept of peace was based on
10:29
Speaker 3: the fact that Israel had to be strong and it
10:32
Speaker 3: had to defend itself. He also believed very strongly in
10:36
Speaker 3: targeting those terrorists that were attacking Israelis.
10:41
Speaker 1: Rabin decides that Israel must kill Abu Jahad, but immediately
10:52
Speaker 1: Rabin faces a problem. Abu Jahad is a long way
10:56
Speaker 1: from Israeli shows Israeli intelligence have traced Abu Jahad to Tunis,
11:09
Speaker 1: North Africa, fifteen hundred miles from Israel. The city has
11:16
Speaker 1: become the new headquarters for the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
11:20
Speaker 3: That was the place where the PLO headquarters was, far
11:24
Speaker 3: away from Israel on the coast of Africa.
11:28
Speaker 1: Aber Jahad and other key Palestinian leaders have homes in
11:31
Speaker 1: a quiet suburb of the Tunisian capital.
11:35
Speaker 4: He lived with his family in a villa in a
11:38
Speaker 4: beachside neighborhood of Tunis.
11:43
Speaker 2: Being so far away from Israel, Abujyad felt quite confident
11:48
Speaker 2: and safe. He didn't think that Israeli intelligence would be
11:52
Speaker 2: able to get so far so remotely from Israel.
11:57
Speaker 1: But he is wrong. Abu Jahad is already under the
12:08
Speaker 1: watchful eye of Israel's intelligence service Mossad.
12:15
Speaker 3: These people are followed, these people attract They knew where
12:19
Speaker 3: he was.
12:20
Speaker 5: This intelligence agency carried out surveillance of the area of
12:25
Speaker 5: tunis where Abujad was living, along with all the PILO leaders.
12:34
Speaker 1: Four days after the Mother's bus attack, Rabin orders Mosad
12:38
Speaker 1: to come up with a way to kill Abu Jahad. Initially,
12:42
Speaker 1: the agency is confident that they can do it themselves.
12:46
Speaker 4: They told Defense Minister Rabin that they could come up
12:48
Speaker 4: with an operational plan to assassinate Abu Jihad in Tunisia
12:53
Speaker 4: within thirty days.
12:56
Speaker 1: Mossad come up with various alternatives for killing Abu.
12:59
Speaker 2: Jahad by a sniper, by exploding his car, by planting
13:09
Speaker 2: a booby trap, by explosive where he was driving from
13:12
Speaker 2: his house to his office, by poisoning him, by firing
13:21
Speaker 2: rockets on his house, all sorts of possible operations.
13:33
Speaker 1: But Rabin rejects them all. None of these options guarantee
13:38
Speaker 1: that Abu Jahad will be killed. With the interfat of
13:41
Speaker 1: raging they simply cannot afford to miss. As far as
13:45
Speaker 1: Rabin is concerned, there is only one way to ensure success,
13:50
Speaker 1: to kill him at point blank range.
13:54
Speaker 2: It was decided that Abu Jayad is going to be
13:56
Speaker 2: killed in his house.
14:00
Speaker 1: Filling the PLO's military commander in his home fifteen hundred
14:03
Speaker 1: miles from Israel will be no easy task.
14:07
Speaker 5: Far harder to target somebody in Tunis than in somewhere
14:12
Speaker 5: there is twenty minutes flying time, or just across one
14:15
Speaker 5: of Israel's borders.
14:18
Speaker 2: And so at the end of the day, Mossad came
14:22
Speaker 2: to Sakabin and said, we are not able to do
14:27
Speaker 2: this alone.
14:29
Speaker 1: Skilled assassins as they are. Getting a hit team inside
14:33
Speaker 1: Abu Jahad's house without being discovered is beyond even the Mossad.
14:39
Speaker 1: So Rabine now calls upon a highly secretive special operations brigade,
14:44
Speaker 1: famed for their ability to strike at Israel's enemies wherever
14:48
Speaker 1: they may try to hide.
14:49
Speaker 4: When Israel wants to strike, Israeli leaders turn to a
14:53
Speaker 4: special unit of the Israeli military.
14:57
Speaker 2: The immediate candidate to perform the assassination is the General
15:02
Speaker 2: Staff Reconnaissance Unit, but in Israel.
15:07
Speaker 1: They are known by another name. In English, they are
15:15
Speaker 1: known as the Unit, but in Hebrew they call them
15:19
Speaker 1: the Siaret Matcal.
15:24
Speaker 3: Sarah McCall in Israel is nothing short of legendary or mythical.
15:30
Speaker 3: It's essentially the top unit in the army.
15:36
Speaker 5: That's the sort of byword for an elite unit. There
15:40
Speaker 5: are others, but that's the sort of current la current.
15:44
Speaker 8: So unit model after the British Essays Seal Teams are similar.
15:49
Speaker 8: Tour Delta Force a similar tour.
15:54
Speaker 1: Like these other special forces units, the Siret Mcal are
15:57
Speaker 1: experts at killing people.
16:00
Speaker 4: Thought of as assassination specialists.
16:03
Speaker 9: They're willing to sacrifice everything for their country.
16:08
Speaker 1: Commanders train intensively in survival skills, marksmanship, and hand to
16:15
Speaker 1: hand combat.
16:16
Speaker 3: Their job is to go on special operations that are
16:19
Speaker 3: considered beyond the scope of the irregular troops.
16:23
Speaker 1: Only the very best of the Israeli military are recruited
16:26
Speaker 1: into the Siret Matcal.
16:29
Speaker 7: If you're looking in a NIT unit for a person
16:32
Speaker 7: that in no time can concentrate and do the things best,
16:38
Speaker 7: you're looking for a person that will never give up
16:41
Speaker 7: on himself.
16:42
Speaker 4: These men have the reputation for accomplishing things, getting things done.
16:57
Speaker 1: That reputation was cemented by a legendary operation that took
17:01
Speaker 1: place in nineteen seventy six. Terrorists hijack and air France
17:07
Speaker 1: plane with more than one hundred Israelian Jewish civilians on board.
17:12
Speaker 1: The plane is diverted to the Ugandan capital, Entebbe. When
17:17
Speaker 1: Uganda's dictator idi Amin decides to cooperate with the terrorists,
17:22
Speaker 1: Israel calls on the sire At Matcal.
17:27
Speaker 6: The unit said at Matcale took something like a few
17:30
Speaker 6: weeks to train on the model of the aeroplane to
17:35
Speaker 6: fly to Tebe and to give the right solution.
17:37
Speaker 1: For the incident. That solution is for the sire At
17:41
Speaker 1: Matcal commandos to disguise themselves as members of the Ugandan army.
17:47
Speaker 1: Once on the ground, the unit strikes.
17:56
Speaker 8: They went in there, did a counter terrorist mission over
17:58
Speaker 8: a thousand miles from home, killed the terrorist and got
18:03
Speaker 8: out of there alive.
18:07
Speaker 1: One hundred and two hostages were rescued and returned to
18:09
Speaker 1: Israel with only three civilian casualties.
18:19
Speaker 4: That lightning rate, of course, became legendary.
18:23
Speaker 8: And that was the beginning of their reputation as being
18:26
Speaker 8: a hardcore unit.
18:29
Speaker 1: Rabin believes there is no other unit better suited for
18:31
Speaker 1: the task of taking out Abu Jahad. So he puts
18:36
Speaker 1: in a call to a man who had been one
18:38
Speaker 1: of the architects of the Entebbe mission. He is Israel's
18:43
Speaker 1: most decorated soldier and a living legend. Er hud barakh.
18:53
Speaker 4: Aud.
18:54
Speaker 9: Barak was a head of Sayurt with Gaal, one of
18:57
Speaker 9: the most famous commanders of Saurt with God.
19:00
Speaker 3: He was a position then as being a chief of
19:02
Speaker 3: staffer or ahead of military intelligence.
19:06
Speaker 9: Very serious guy, very smart guy, very sharp guy, very
19:10
Speaker 9: decorated guy.
19:18
Speaker 1: Rabin orders Barak to draw up a plan for the
19:21
Speaker 1: Siret Matcau to assassinate Abu Jahat. It will be known
19:26
Speaker 1: as Operation Show of Force. Now Barak demonstrates one of
19:34
Speaker 1: the hallmarks of the Siret Matcaw meticulous planning. The key
19:40
Speaker 1: will be finding out as much as he can about
19:42
Speaker 1: conditions on the ground.
19:45
Speaker 8: They more than anybody know the importance of intelligence and
19:49
Speaker 8: good intelligence.
19:51
Speaker 5: Despite the distance, If everything was carefully looked at in advance,
19:56
Speaker 5: there was a reasonable chance that they'd be able to
19:58
Speaker 5: get away with it.
20:03
Speaker 1: First Barak has Mosad sent more agents to Tunisia. Previously,
20:14
Speaker 1: Mossad had been simply keeping tabs on Abu Jahad. Now
20:18
Speaker 1: they are tasked with gathering detailed information on his every movement.
20:24
Speaker 4: The Mosad send people into Tunisia posing as either tourists
20:28
Speaker 4: or business people are very routine again for the Mozad.
20:34
Speaker 2: They were sent to Tunisia to check all various questions
20:37
Speaker 2: that came from seirt.
20:40
Speaker 1: Matcall posing as Lebanese Arabs. The new team liaise with
20:47
Speaker 1: the agents already embedded in tunis The agents monitor Abu
20:51
Speaker 1: Jahad's journeys around the city.
20:55
Speaker 2: Israeli intelligence was updated of the tiniest details of abujihad
21:01
Speaker 2: daily routine and daily schedule.
21:08
Speaker 1: The agents listen in on telephone calls to his home.
21:13
Speaker 4: The Mozart would use electronic means to intercept communications and
21:16
Speaker 4: listen in, so they were confident that they would know
21:20
Speaker 4: when Abu Jihad is.
21:22
Speaker 1: At home, watching and listening to his every move The
21:30
Speaker 1: Mossad team soon learned the vital information that Barak needs
21:33
Speaker 1: to launch his operation.
21:36
Speaker 2: Who is in the house with Abujihad, how the house
21:41
Speaker 2: is built, who is sleeping in each room, how many guns,
21:46
Speaker 2: how far is the police station.
21:50
Speaker 1: They know the height of the perimeter walls, the types
21:53
Speaker 1: of windows, doors and locks, the distance between the wombs.
21:58
Speaker 1: They soon know every aspect of the villa's defenses.
22:02
Speaker 3: They know exactly where he is and what four of
22:05
Speaker 3: the building, and when he goes to sleep, and when
22:06
Speaker 3: he comes, when he goes, and where his body guards
22:08
Speaker 3: are going to be, et cetera.
22:20
Speaker 1: Armed with the intelligence from Mossad back in Israel, Barak
22:25
Speaker 1: begins to draw up plans for the operation, and so.
22:28
Speaker 2: Sayot Matcal was starting to plan how to take out Abujahad.
22:34
Speaker 1: The planned Barack develops is to send in a small
22:37
Speaker 1: team of commandos to assault the villa under cover of darkness.
22:42
Speaker 1: But it will only work if it is carefully choreographed.
22:47
Speaker 9: The preparation and planning is the most important thing in
22:51
Speaker 9: the mission for the Special Forces soldier or the special
22:54
Speaker 9: Forces unit.
22:56
Speaker 1: They construct their plan using the detailed Mossad intelligence and.
23:01
Speaker 2: They build a small model which is an exact copying
23:05
Speaker 2: of the house.
23:08
Speaker 1: Barack marks out the guard posts and points of entry.
23:13
Speaker 8: They get all their intelligence together and then they have
23:16
Speaker 8: to figure out the best route in.
23:18
Speaker 1: To that target. Different strategies for the assault are debated
23:27
Speaker 1: in order to minimize the risk of failure.
23:29
Speaker 9: The soldiers are smart and they have a lot of experience,
23:33
Speaker 9: and if they have a good idea, then the idea
23:35
Speaker 9: is taken and the plan is changed.
23:40
Speaker 1: Once this is agreed, the commandos mark out the exact
23:44
Speaker 1: footprint of the villa and practice the assault again and again.
23:55
Speaker 4: That was something that is rarely intelligence and the sire
23:58
Speaker 4: at MacCall commando's frequently he did. They never wanted to
24:01
Speaker 4: leave anything to chance.
24:04
Speaker 7: Like every other secret or special operation, you should train,
24:10
Speaker 7: train for the exact steps, for the exact performance of
24:17
Speaker 7: yourself and others and so on, but expect unexpected.
24:30
Speaker 1: The next stage is to practice the mission in real conditions.
24:37
Speaker 2: Saret Matcal asked few people to donate, and how's in
24:42
Speaker 2: Israel not far away from the beach for rehearsals. House
24:46
Speaker 2: is quite similar to that of Abu Jihad.
24:52
Speaker 4: And again and again practice the assault in Israel before
24:56
Speaker 4: embarking on the mission.
25:07
Speaker 1: Whilst the commandos are practicing for the assault on the villa,
25:11
Speaker 1: Barak turns his attentions to one outstanding issue. That means
25:15
Speaker 1: getting the commando unit the fifteen hundred miles to Tunisia
25:20
Speaker 1: safely and secretly.
25:29
Speaker 4: All arms of Israeli power would be involved here. The Mozad,
25:34
Speaker 4: the military intelligence, the Navy, the Air Force.
25:39
Speaker 1: Barak mobilizes the entire Israeli military. First, the Navy will
25:44
Speaker 1: take the commandos from Israel to Tunisian waters in missile boats.
25:49
Speaker 2: It was a huge al made of ships, airplanes, cargo
25:54
Speaker 2: ships caring helicopters above them.
25:58
Speaker 1: Barakod is the air force to be ready with an
26:00
Speaker 1: emergency evacuation plan, So.
26:03
Speaker 7: What gall is and the coverage of the air force
26:08
Speaker 7: in order to be evacuated if something really that happens.
26:12
Speaker 1: It is an almost unprecedented mission and its size and ambition.
26:18
Speaker 2: This was a huge operation, thousands of soldiers and intelligence
26:22
Speaker 2: officers from the Navy, Mozad, military Intelligence.
26:38
Speaker 1: Having arranged how to get the commandos too tu Nisia,
26:41
Speaker 1: Barak now focuses on a very particular problem. The nearest
26:46
Speaker 1: landing beach is two and a half miles from the villa.
26:51
Speaker 1: This presents him with two problems.
26:54
Speaker 2: The first is how to get matcall to the house
26:59
Speaker 2: and the second how to get them back safely and
27:02
Speaker 2: live after the assassination.
27:05
Speaker 1: How can Barak get the team through the Tunisian streets
27:08
Speaker 1: without them being detected by either the Palestinians or the
27:12
Speaker 1: Tunisian police.
27:14
Speaker 2: Bear in mind Tunisia is an Arab country and not
27:18
Speaker 2: a democratic state. It's a sort of a police state
27:21
Speaker 2: far away from Israel.
27:23
Speaker 8: Then have to get there quickly without drawing attention, so
27:28
Speaker 8: they need an insertion plan.
27:34
Speaker 1: So Barak comes up with an ingenious method to get
27:37
Speaker 1: the commando's tuned from the villa without being detected. First,
27:44
Speaker 1: they will arrange a distraction to clear the area of police.
27:50
Speaker 7: We're expecting local forces to interven, so you give an
27:56
Speaker 7: notice to the police. Local police that's something faway on
28:04
Speaker 7: the other side of the city, so is concentrated there,
28:09
Speaker 7: you have time to go.
28:16
Speaker 1: Next, the Mossad agents on the ground will rent cars
28:19
Speaker 1: and drive them to the beach front. There they will
28:24
Speaker 1: collect the commandos and ferry them to a location near
28:27
Speaker 1: to the villa.
28:29
Speaker 4: Those rented cars were placed on the beach in tunis
28:34
Speaker 4: to make sure that no suspicions would be aroused.
28:39
Speaker 1: The Mossad agents will park the cars near Abu Jahad's home,
28:42
Speaker 1: but the commandos will have to walk the final few
28:45
Speaker 1: yards to the villa on foot. This is when they
28:49
Speaker 1: will be most exposed. To get them the last few
28:55
Speaker 1: hundred yards Barrack turns to his own experiences. Fifteen years earlier,
29:05
Speaker 1: Barak was involved in one of the most remarkable missions
29:08
Speaker 1: in the history of the Syret Marcal. The unit was
29:13
Speaker 1: sent into Beirut, the heart of enemy territory. They were
29:18
Speaker 1: sent to kill the men behind the slaughter of eleven
29:21
Speaker 1: Israeli athletes of the Munich Olympics. To infiltrate the city undetected,
29:27
Speaker 1: Barak and the others employed a very unusual disguise.
29:31
Speaker 2: Some of them are dressed as women in order not
29:35
Speaker 2: to destruct attention that just a group of men is
29:37
Speaker 2: walking in the street. It's always easier to have men
29:42
Speaker 2: and women together.
29:44
Speaker 1: Their disguises allowed the unit to disperse through the city
29:47
Speaker 1: undetected and launch multiple synchronized attacks. At the end of
30:04
Speaker 1: that operation, fifteen known terrorists were dead. Now Barak's team
30:11
Speaker 1: will play the same trick in Tunisia in order to
30:14
Speaker 1: get to Abu jahadz Villa undetected.
30:19
Speaker 4: The Israelis felt that they could do that even in Tunisia,
30:22
Speaker 4: even fifteen hundred miles away, so that playbook was turned
30:26
Speaker 4: to once again.
30:31
Speaker 1: This leaves Barak with one final decision to choose the
30:35
Speaker 1: man to lead the mission. He chooses nahum Lev, the
30:43
Speaker 1: deputy chief of the Siret Matcal.
30:47
Speaker 2: Nahum Lev, his deputy, one of the most brave and
30:51
Speaker 2: legendary figures and different figures in the history of sea
30:55
Speaker 2: at Matcal, to lead the operation.
31:00
Speaker 1: Having read all the available intelligence, Lev declares that Abu
31:06
Speaker 1: Jahad is a dead man walking.
31:11
Speaker 2: He said, you know, I read the file on Abu Jahad.
31:15
Speaker 2: I knew how many Jews, how many brother Israelis he killed.
31:21
Speaker 2: I knew that his hands are covered with Jewish blood.
31:28
Speaker 2: He deserved to die.
31:32
Speaker 1: Lef's task is to be the first man into the
31:35
Speaker 1: villa and to locate Abu Jahad. Lev and his men
31:49
Speaker 1: now embark on the fifteen hundred mile journey to Tunisian waters.
31:54
Speaker 1: The quarter century chase for Abu Jahad is almost over.
32:02
Speaker 1: At a military based south of Tel Aviv, especially adapted
32:06
Speaker 1: passenger jet takes off bound for Tunisia.
32:09
Speaker 5: He's ready used a electronic warfare aircraft, a converted bowing.
32:17
Speaker 1: Barack will command the operation from the plane, which has
32:20
Speaker 1: been turned into a flying control center. A few hours later,
32:28
Speaker 1: the plane reaches Tunisian airspace. Barak now orders the Mossad
32:32
Speaker 1: team to the beach.
32:34
Speaker 2: The massade was waiting with the rented cars by the shore,
32:39
Speaker 2: waiting for the say Earthmatal people to come ashore.
32:49
Speaker 1: With the Mossad agents in place, the order is given
32:53
Speaker 1: for the Sireed Matcal to land. They're taken ashore by
33:00
Speaker 1: members of Flotilla thirteen, Israel's navy seals. To minimize sound,
33:11
Speaker 1: commanders row the last few hundred meters to shore.
33:16
Speaker 4: The Israelis landed in the dead of night. They were
33:20
Speaker 4: picked up by their Mosad people. Nobody was there when
33:24
Speaker 4: they came to Tunisian security.
33:29
Speaker 1: Immediately, the commando's change into their tourist disguises.
33:34
Speaker 2: They're all changing very quickly. They changed their clothes to
33:37
Speaker 2: civilian clothes. Some of them dressed as women. The whole
33:42
Speaker 2: group Mossad Flotilla thirteen and said mccallor. Waiting at the
33:46
Speaker 2: beach for the final go ahead.
33:50
Speaker 1: As they wait for a green light, the commanders learned
33:55
Speaker 1: from Barak that there's a problem. Israeli intelligence have intercepted
34:03
Speaker 1: a phone call to Abu Jahaha.
34:06
Speaker 2: Someone from the PLO headquarters called Abu Jahad and said
34:09
Speaker 2: that they were warned by apparently a European intelligence service
34:14
Speaker 2: that the Israelis are thinking of killing a PLO senior figure.
34:22
Speaker 1: Barak's fear is that if Abu Jahad suspects he might
34:25
Speaker 1: be the senior figure being targeted, he may flee Tunis immediately.
34:33
Speaker 2: The Israelis were quite afraid that he's going to take
34:35
Speaker 2: this threat seriously.
34:38
Speaker 1: Barak demands a report from the Mossad team watching the villa.
34:42
Speaker 1: Is Abu Jahad at home or has he fled Tunis.
34:47
Speaker 1: The agent's report that his Mercedes has been seen arriving
34:51
Speaker 1: at the villa, but they cannot confirm that Abu Jahad
34:53
Speaker 1: was in the car.
34:55
Speaker 2: They saw people going out of Abu Jihad house and
34:58
Speaker 2: getting into the house, but they didn't see their face.
35:04
Speaker 1: While Barak waits to find out where Abu Jahad is,
35:08
Speaker 1: he orders the moss Out agents of the beach to
35:10
Speaker 1: take the si At Matcal to their position near the villa.
35:15
Speaker 2: Quite rapidly. They launched the force, the Skal force from
35:18
Speaker 2: the beach to Abujad house.
35:23
Speaker 4: At about one o'clock in the morning. The three vehicles
35:26
Speaker 4: that contained the Israeli commandos went into this neighborhood called City. Boussaid.
35:37
Speaker 4: One vehicle containing eight Israeli commandos actually went to the front.
35:43
Speaker 1: Of the house, but Baraks still cannot order the commandos
35:49
Speaker 1: to launch their assault.
35:52
Speaker 7: Even after forces left the beach and went on to
35:57
Speaker 7: the house, we still did not have the right assurance.
36:00
Speaker 1: To go in.
36:02
Speaker 2: They were waiting there for the final approval of the
36:07
Speaker 2: commanders of the operation that Abu Jihad is indeed at home.
36:12
Speaker 1: These are the actual words from secret radio communications between
36:16
Speaker 1: the units as they wait for the order to proceed.
36:23
Speaker 7: There are some people who are not sleeping.
36:28
Speaker 2: In the opens okay the jerg by honor.
36:32
Speaker 1: They use code names and speak in English instead of
36:36
Speaker 1: Hebrew in case anyone is listening.
36:42
Speaker 4: Israeli commandos were setting with their Uzi submachine guns and
36:45
Speaker 4: pistols between their legs, just waiting for the signal to proceed.
36:52
Speaker 1: Without absolute certainty that the target is at home, Barak
36:56
Speaker 1: cannot give the order to strike.
36:59
Speaker 2: The assured the Minister of Defense that they will know
37:03
Speaker 2: for sure that Abu Jada is in the house before
37:06
Speaker 2: launching this assault.
37:15
Speaker 1: It is now that Barak shows the Siren Matecal's real quality.
37:21
Speaker 1: He has a backup plan.
37:23
Speaker 7: Israel is famous for being adjustable. We change views, we
37:30
Speaker 7: change our behavior, we change actions according to time and
37:36
Speaker 7: person's involvement. That's a lety unit.
37:44
Speaker 1: A few days previously, Barak had ordered an operation in
37:47
Speaker 1: the Palestinian territories.
37:53
Speaker 2: They've braid a house in Gaza and arrests a distant
37:57
Speaker 2: relative of Abu Jihad, a lawyer.
38:02
Speaker 1: Now in a secret underground basement in Tel Aviv. A
38:05
Speaker 1: call is made to Abu Jahad's villa using a specially
38:08
Speaker 1: diverted line.
38:10
Speaker 2: Something that would look like a phone call from Italy
38:13
Speaker 2: to Abu Jahad's office in his home.
38:16
Speaker 1: Making the call is an Israeli agent who pretends to
38:20
Speaker 1: be a Palestinian informing ab Had of his relatives arrest.
38:26
Speaker 2: Ah Saani was shouting and cursing, you must help. They
38:34
Speaker 2: have arrested Ahma again, list some of the bitchession. If
38:39
Speaker 2: they have arrested they are torturing him.
38:45
Speaker 1: Then they hear the voice on the other end of
38:46
Speaker 1: the line.
38:48
Speaker 2: The speaker says, who is this, Please calm down, We'll
38:51
Speaker 2: make sure everything is okay, We'll help, don't pour you.
38:56
Speaker 1: The agent has to keep the person on the phone
38:58
Speaker 1: talking litening In are three Arabic experts who have been
39:02
Speaker 1: trained to recognize Abu Jahad's voice.
39:08
Speaker 2: Each one of them had to raise his right arm
39:12
Speaker 2: when he's one hundred percent confident that this is Abu
39:15
Speaker 2: Jihad speaking from the other side of the line.
39:19
Speaker 1: As the three soldiers listened to the voice, first one
39:25
Speaker 1: and then another raised their right hands into the air.
39:39
Speaker 1: Finally the third hand is raised.
39:44
Speaker 2: It was approved and confirmed and corroborated that Abujad is
39:50
Speaker 2: in the house.
39:54
Speaker 1: Finally, Barak can give the order to strike.
40:04
Speaker 8: Nation stationing fam by saying.
40:08
Speaker 9: Again, going farm.
40:10
Speaker 1: Lev, the commander of the operation, and another commando dressed
40:14
Speaker 1: as a woman pick in the final approach to the villa.
40:17
Speaker 1: Disguised as a romantic couple, they walk through the busy
40:20
Speaker 1: streets hidden in plain sight.
40:23
Speaker 8: Nobody'd think twice looking at these guys.
40:26
Speaker 1: Their task to approach the villa undetected and take out
40:30
Speaker 1: the guard on the gate.
40:31
Speaker 2: So they were pair walking the street carrying a chocolate box.
40:36
Speaker 1: But the innocuous looking chocolate box Lev carries actually conceals
40:40
Speaker 1: a gun.
40:41
Speaker 8: They had a weapon hidden under a box of chocolates.
40:44
Speaker 8: It's not going to be in a holster and it
40:46
Speaker 8: won't be sung around the neck.
40:49
Speaker 1: Lev and his partner now approach the entrance to the villa,
40:52
Speaker 1: where the guard is sat in Abu Jahad's black Mercedes.
40:59
Speaker 2: They got close to the driver of Abu Jihad that
41:03
Speaker 2: was still sitting in the car.
41:08
Speaker 1: The woman distracts the guard by asking for directions.
41:13
Speaker 2: They pulled out the map and they wanted to ask
41:15
Speaker 2: in some sort of tourists request.
41:19
Speaker 1: As the guard looks over the map, Lev acts. Now
41:28
Speaker 1: the other commandos make their move.
41:33
Speaker 4: The eighth commandos swiftly assaulted the house.
41:37
Speaker 2: They went to the backyard and came to the door.
41:52
Speaker 2: It made some noise and Abuji had heard it in
41:55
Speaker 2: the upper floor.
42:24
Speaker 1: Lev and his accomplice concentrate on the stairs that will
42:27
Speaker 1: lead to abager heart. The other team go to take
42:30
Speaker 1: out the remaining bodyguards. With the bodyguards dealt with, Lev
42:48
Speaker 1: and his partner close in on the main target.
42:51
Speaker 2: One of the assassins of Sayah mccal was going up
42:55
Speaker 2: the stairs. A young officer of Sarah MCAL who was
42:58
Speaker 2: chosen by Nahum Lev to be the first one to
43:00
Speaker 2: come in.
43:01
Speaker 1: The commando hears someone at the top of the stairs.
43:07
Speaker 1: Is it Abujahad or an innocent member of his family.
43:11
Speaker 1: The commander knows that he will have to identify the
43:14
Speaker 1: target in an instant. The commando reacts instinctively, and.
43:30
Speaker 2: Then other people from the unit came and show up
43:33
Speaker 2: Abu Jihad as well.
43:38
Speaker 4: Seventy bullets hit Abu Jihad and his right hand, which
43:42
Speaker 4: had held the pistol, was nearly seven.
43:46
Speaker 1: But as they are firing, Abujahad's wife suddenly appears.
43:52
Speaker 2: In strange halas Hallas stop it. Stopping don't to see
43:55
Speaker 2: that he's already dead.
43:58
Speaker 1: But even with everyone's nerves on edge, discipline holes.
44:03
Speaker 7: Even when the unexpected happened, the wife did not get hurt.
44:09
Speaker 7: We will avoid shooting even on the expense of getting hurt.
44:18
Speaker 1: Instead, Lev orders her to face the wall, and with
44:23
Speaker 1: Abu Jahad confirmed dead, the command who's depart.
44:29
Speaker 7: Once it was finished, they rushed into the cars, back
44:34
Speaker 7: to the beach, back.
44:36
Speaker 1: To the boats, and the entire operation has been accomplished
44:46
Speaker 1: in a matter of minutes.
44:51
Speaker 4: At dawn, when the Tunisian investigators and a PLO team
44:55
Speaker 4: went out to see what happened, all they found were
44:58
Speaker 4: the three rented vehicles and footprints on the sand.
45:03
Speaker 1: As the commando's journey back to Israel, they know that
45:06
Speaker 1: even by their own high standards operations, show of force
45:10
Speaker 1: is an outstanding achievement.
45:13
Speaker 4: Abu Jihad, who as far as the Israelis were concerned,
45:16
Speaker 4: was the main planner of the Interfada they were out
45:19
Speaker 4: to stop, was dead.
45:27
Speaker 1: But the mission hadn't been quite flawless. Despite all the
45:32
Speaker 1: intelligence gathered, there was something they had missed at the
45:37
Speaker 1: time of the raid. Abu Jahad's gardener was sleeping in
45:41
Speaker 1: the basement of the villa. This innocent man had been
45:48
Speaker 1: killed alongside aber Jahad's bodyguards. Soon news of the operation
45:57
Speaker 1: reaches Israel.
46:00
Speaker 2: When the troops were on their way home, it was
46:04
Speaker 2: already published that someone killed Abu Jihad in his house.
46:09
Speaker 5: Israel has never formally admitted to killing abuja Had that
46:13
Speaker 5: there was never really any doubt about it.
46:17
Speaker 1: But there is a strange twist to this tale. The
46:19
Speaker 1: news of Abajahat's death does not have the effect Rabin
46:22
Speaker 1: had hoped for.
46:24
Speaker 5: It's all very well, being clever killing hades Thingian leaders,
46:28
Speaker 5: but the pierlo didn't disappear and the interfardo didn't stop.
46:34
Speaker 1: In fact, the violence gets worse. News of Abu Jahad's
46:38
Speaker 1: death triggers the bloodiest day of protests since the Interfarda began,
46:43
Speaker 1: and In a bizarre development, the Israelis learned that despite
46:47
Speaker 1: his claims, abuja had had never had anything to do
46:50
Speaker 1: with the Interafada.
46:52
Speaker 2: In fact was lying. He didn't know that the father
46:55
Speaker 2: is going to break up. He owed the pilo and
46:58
Speaker 2: they sort of jumped on their way again after it started,
47:01
Speaker 2: claimed responsibility for something that they had none involved in whatsoever.
47:12
Speaker 1: And the reaction of Israelis wasn't what Rabin had expected either.
47:16
Speaker 5: There was quite a lot of comment in Israel that, well,
47:18
Speaker 5: this was a brilliantly executed mission by our boys. At
47:23
Speaker 5: the end of the day, didn't make much difference in
47:25
Speaker 5: the big picture, not really.
47:28
Speaker 1: But one difference it did make was to the career
47:31
Speaker 1: of the man in charge of the operation, Erhud Barak.
47:36
Speaker 3: It's hard to overstate what a legendary career he's had.
47:41
Speaker 1: In the years after the Tunisian mission, Barak was made
47:44
Speaker 1: Chief of the General Staff, and in nineteen ninety nine,
47:48
Speaker 1: the Israeli people showed their admiration for the sira At
47:51
Speaker 1: Mattcal when they elected this former leader of the unit
47:55
Speaker 1: to become Israeli Prime Minister.
47:58
Speaker 4: The Israeli public, though it doesn't know much about precisely
48:02
Speaker 4: what Syrat Matcal has done well. The Israeli public knows
48:06
Speaker 4: that it's a trustworthy group of men who get things done.