Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

FORCE 17 • 195During the early 1970s, Force 17 would regulate the behavior ofPalestinian guerrillas in Lebanon to prevent abuses against Lebanesenationals that might jeopardize PLO relations with the Lebanese government.On 17 April 1978, Force 17 arrested about 100 members ofAbu Nidal’s Fatah Revolutionary Council, then backed by Iraq, insouthern Lebanon to prevent them from disrupting a cease-fire withthe Israeli Defense Forces. In August 1987 and May 1989, two Force17 commanders were assassinated in feuding between al Fatah loyalistsand Syrian-backed dissidents.Force 17’s entry into externally directed terrorism dates from 25September 1985, when al Fatah agents seized and killed three Israelisin Larnaca, Cyprus, whom they suspected to be agents of Mossad,Israel’s national security agency. This occasioned Israel’s retaliatoryair raid on the PLO headquarters in Tunis on 1 October 1985,in which 60 Palestinians were killed and 100 injured. AfterwardForce 17 claimed responsibility for several attacks occurring withinIsrael: on 2 February 1986, a bus bombing in Jerusalem that injuredsix people; on 17 September 1986, throwing of explosives into theEl Al airline’s offices in Tel Aviv; on 14 November 1986, a stabbingdeath of a Yeshiva student in Jerusalem; on 28 June 1987, thebombing of a popular beach near Haifa, injuring a woman and child;and on 27 November 1987, the murder of two agents of Shin Bet,Israel’s internal security service, who had their throats slashed. Theseactions bear close resemblance to the sorts of apparently random,spontaneous attacks occurring within Israel since the beginning of thefirst intifada uprising on 9 December 1987. Israeli authorities havemaintained that Khalil al Wazir was actually the mastermind behindthe first intifada.Since the 13 September 1993 peace, Force 17 is believed to haveengaged in numerous acts of repression directed at Palestinians. ThePalestinian human rights activist Bassam Eid, speaking in Londonon 29 January 1997, claimed that while he was working with the Israelihuman rights group B’tselem in 1996, he had been kidnappedby Force 17 members from his Jerusalem home and threatened bythem. According to him, arbitrary arrest and torture of Palestiniandissidents by Force 17 had left many of them too frightened to speakout against abuses of power by Yasir Arafat. On 30 June 1997, Force17 reportedly tortured Nasser Abed Radwan to death in Gaza whilehe was being detained without charges. A Palestinian Authority (PA)