On March 11, 1978, 30 years after the massacre of Deir Yassin, a group of fedayeen led by the martyr Dalal Al-Mughrabi embarked across the sea to Haifa to carry out an operation in the heart of the occupied land planned by the martyr Abu Jihad. This group was named the "Deir Yassin Group" and was led by Dalal Al-Mughrabi, known as the "Bride of Jaffa." They abducted a bus of Israeli soldiers in 1978, resulting in the killing of more than 30 Israelis. Dalal Al-Mughrabi and other resistance fighters were martyred in the operation, which Nizar Qabbani described as "Establishing the Palestinian Republic." Who is Dalal Al-Mughrabi?
Birth and Upbringing:
Dalal Al-Mughrabi was born in 1958 in one of the refugee camps in Beirut. She was the daughter of a family from Jaffa who sought refuge in Lebanon following the Nakba in 1948.
Fedayeen Experience:
She joined the Palestinian fedayeen movement while still in school and participated in defending the Palestinian revolution in Beirut in 1973. She underwent several military training courses, learning various types of weapons and guerrilla warfare tactics. Additionally, she volunteered as a nurse with the Red Crescent, following in her father's footsteps.
At the age of twenty, Dalal was chosen as the leader of the Deir Yassin group, consisting of twelve fedayeen, to carry out an operation planned by the martyr Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad). Their mission was to seize an Israeli military bus and head to Tel Aviv to attack the Knesset building to pressure the occupation to release some Palestinian prisoners. This operation was known as the Kamal Adwan Operation, led by Dalal Al-Mughrabi.
The operation was known as the Kamal Adwan Operation, named after the Palestinian commander who was responsible for the resistance apparatus in Beirut. Adwan was assassinated along with a group of resistance fighters in their homes in the Firdan neighborhood on Sadat Street in Beirut in 1977 by a unit led by the former Defense Minister of the occupation Ehud Barak. Dalal and her group infiltrated from Lebanese territory on March 11, 1978. They landed from a ship that passed by the Palestinian coast after two rubber boats were thrown to take them to the shore. The fedayeen then descended onto the main street and seized several cars, the last of which was a large passenger car they used to head towards Tel Aviv with many hostages. Dalal said to the hostages, "We don't want to kill you; we are just holding you as hostages to free our brothers imprisoned in your alleged state's prisons." Then she took out a Palestinian flag from her bag and hung it inside the bus while chanting, "My homeland, my homeland, for you my love and my heart. Palestine, O land of my ancestors, we must return to you."
After Dalal and her group approached Tel Aviv, the Israeli government tasked a special unit led by Barak to stop the bus and either kill or arrest the fedayeen passengers. Large units of tanks and helicopters were deployed to pursue the bus until it was intercepted and disabled near the settlement of Herzliya. The unit clashed with Israeli forces, resulting in Dalal and her comrades being martyred, along with one captured, while dozens of Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded, and the passenger bus with its occupants burned down.
Even in martyrdom, Dalal continues to trouble the occupation as her body remains detained by the Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his country's ambassador to the United Nations in March 2016 to file a complaint against the Palestinian Authority for commemorating her martyrdom.
In the image, Ehud Barak can be seen pulling Dalal al-Mughrabi's hair after realizing that she was the leader of the group.
Operation Outcome:
Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Menachem Begin, acknowledged on the second day of the operation that 37 Israelis were killed and more than eighty were injured. However, he did not disclose the number of casualties among the army.
Here are the names of the participants in the operation:
Dalal Sa'id al-Mughrabi (Jihad): Born in Beirut, 20 years old, the political commissioner of the group, she was injured by a bullet above her left eye and martyred.
Mahmoud Ali Abu Munif (Abu Haza'a): Born in Nablus in 1960, the leader of the group, he was wounded in the forehead and martyred.
Hussein Fayyad (Abu Jareeha): Born in Gaza - Khan Yunis in 1960, assigned to lead the group after Abu Haza'a was injured, remained the leader even after Abu Haza'a's condition improved, arrested after the operation and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Abu al-Ramz: 18 years old, bravest member of the group, pretended to surrender to Israeli forces, then grabbed the Kalashnikov hanging from his shoulder and killed a group of Israeli forces, was injured and martyred afterward.
Khaled Mohammed Ibrahim (Abu Salah): Born in Kuwait, 18 years old, wounded in the hand, arrested after the operation and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Hussein Murad (Osama): Born in Mansoura in 1961, 15 years old, Lebanese origin, the youngest member of the group, shot in the head and martyred.
Mohammed Hussein al-Shammari (Abu Hassan): Born in Shamar, Yemen, in 1958, 18 years old, Yemeni origin, engaged to a Palestinian girl named Fatima whom he intended to marry after the operation, sustained a fracture in his right foot during the operation, then martyred by a gunshot.
Khaled Abdul Fattah Youssef (Abdul Salam): Born in Tulkarm in 1957, 18 years old, drowned before the group reached its target when the boat he and his companions were on capsized, some survived while he and another fedayeen drowned and martyred.
Abdul Raouf Abdul Salam Ali (Abu Ahmed): Born in Sana'a, Yemen, in 1956, Yemeni origin, drowned after the boat capsized.
Mohammad Mahmoud Abdel Rahim Masameh (Fakhir al-Nahhal): Born in Tulkarm in 1959, a Palestinian born in Kuwait, a first-class sniper, shot fatally in the eye, leading to his martyrdom.
Ammar Ahmed Amouriyya (Tariq bin Ziyad): Born in al-Minya - Tripoli in 1953, of Lebanese origin, martyred after being shot fatally.
Mohammed Raji al-Shar'an (Wael): Born in Sidon in 1957, 17 years old, always smiling even during the operation, was shot in the abdomen leading to his martyrdom.
Yahya Mohammed Skaf (Abu Jalal): Lebanese, born in al-Minya - Tripoli in 1959, was injured in the operation. Red Cross testimonies indicate that he was detained in military intelligence prisons, and Israel did not acknowledge his presence in its prisons. His body is expected to be handed over in a prisoner exchange deal.
Before her martyrdom, Dalal left a handwritten will for the Palestinians, stating, "My will to all of you, my brothers, the bearers of arms, begins with freezing secondary contradictions and escalating the main contradiction against the Zionist enemy. The rifles should all be directed towards the Zionist enemy, and the Palestinian decision-making independence should be protected by the continuous rifles of the revolutionaries of all factions. I say this to all my brothers wherever they are: Continue on the same path we have taken."
Dalal formed a unique case in Palestinian resistance work, as the poet Nizar Qabbani said in March 1978, "Dalal established the Palestinian Republic and raised the Palestinian flag. It doesn't matter how old this republic is, what matters is that the Palestinian flag has risen in the depth of the occupied land on a road 95 kilometers long on the main line in Palestine."
Sources: Wafa News Agency + Al Jazeera Channel website.
Video from Al Arabiya Channel titled "I Was There | Dalal al-Mughrabi - The Coastal Operation 1978."
Short video from Palestine 27k Channel.
Photos and posters from the Palestinian Archives page on Twitter.
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