Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE • 539tions; and four assassinations and one attempted assassination. Sincethe second intifada, the PFLP, beginning in September 2001, has alsosponsored at least six suicide bombing attacks in the name of theMartyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade. These include the 16 February 2002bombing of a pizza shop in Karnie Shomron, West Bank, killing threeIsraelis; the Netanya market bombing on 19 May 2002, killing threeIsraelis; the 25 December 2003 bombing of the Geha Junction stationin Petah Tikva, killing four Israelis, and the 1 November 2004 Carmelmarket bombing in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis. With the adoptionof effective preventive measures by Israel against suicide bombings,since 2004 the PFLP has relied increasingly on rocket-propelled explosiveslaunched from the Gaza Strip against neighboring Israeli towns.The actual record is confused by the tendency of PFLP splintergroups, such as Wadi al Haddad’s PFLP-Special Operations Groupand the Arab Nationalist Youth Organization, to claim their actionsin the name of the PFLP. Among the PFLP’s more notorious actionsare the following: On 6 September 1970 the PFLP simultaneouslyhijacked three airliners, one each from Trans World Airlines (TWA),Swissair, and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) toDawson’s Field, north of Amman, Jordan, and a fourth airplane, a PanAmerican World Airways (Pan Am) flight, to Cairo. Originally thehijackers held around 310 passengers and crew hostage to force therelease of imprisoned terrorists elsewhere but released all but 56 whoconsisted of the flight crews and Jewish passengers. These were laterreleased in exchange for the freeing of Leyla Khaled, a comrade whohad been captured in a foiled PFLP attempt to hijack an El Al flightas part of the original hijacking plan. On 12 September the hijackersblew up the captured airplanes, an event broadcast by the internationalmass media. While this operation was a terrorist tour de force, it alsobackfired since it completely exasperated King Hussein, who dispatchedhis armed forces to expel the Palestinians. On 30 May 1972,acting at the behest of the PFLP, three Japanese Red Army memberscarried out a massacre at Lod airport, killing 28 people and injuring76 others. On 21 December 1975 Carlos the Jackal led a joint PFLPand Red Army Faction (RAF) group in the OPEC Secretariat siege.On 27 June 1976 the PFLP together with members of the Red ArmyFaction carried out the Entebbe hijacking, seizing an Air France TelAviv-to-Paris flight and diverting it to Entebbe, Uganda, where 240passengers were held hostage until rescued by Israeli commandos