International incidents The 1973 Israeli raid in Lebanon (also known as Operation Spring of Youth in Hebrew or the Verdun massacre in Arabic)[3] took place on the night of April 9 and early morning of April 10, 1973, when Israeli army special forces units attacked several Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) targets in Beirut and Sidon, Lebanon.

In addition to information about their residences, high-grade intelligence had also been amassed on other PLO targets in Lebanon such as weapons workshops, command posts, and offices.

[1] The Mossad subsequently deployed a female agent codenamed Nielsen to Beirut in January 1973 to amass further intelligence so that an assassination operation could be planned.

She arrived in Lebanon under the cover story that she was there to conduct research for a television series on the life of Lady Hester Stanhope which she was planning on writing.

As the buildings were in a densely populated areas, the use of explosives was ruled out due to a high likelihood of killing civilians, and the assassinations would have to be close-contact.

[1] The IDF's initial proposal was for about a hundred soldiers to take over the buildings, herd the residents into the street, and conduct a lineup to identify and kill the three targets.

However, IDF Chief of Staff David Elazar had doubts about the plan and asked Ehud Barak, the commander of the Sayeret Matkal special forces unit, to come up with a better one.

He decided that a small raiding party should instead enter the city, conduct the assassinations within a matter of minutes, and escape before any response could be mounted.

[1] The final plan was to land soldiers from navy ships on the Lebanese coast who would infiltrate into Beirut disguised as tourists, where they would be picked up by Mossad agents waiting for them with rented cars and driven to their targets.

[1] On April 9, 1973, eight Israeli Navy missile boats departed from Haifa naval base, carrying 75 soldiers - 21 Sayeret Matkal commandos, 34 Shayetet 13 naval commandos, and 20 soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade's Sayeret Tzanhanim unit - and 19 Zodiac speedboats on board.

After kicking in the door and finding Najjar's body and his fatally injured wife, Betser decided not to pick up his documents as planned as he had heard shooting outside, and ordered his soldiers to follow him into the street.

Kamal Nasser, who had been sitting at his desk, took cover and fired at the raiders with his pistol, hitting one of them in the leg before being killed.

According to Palestinian reports, Nasser, a Christian, was shot in front of his family with his bullet wounds tracing the sign of the cross.

Barak and Amiram Levin shot him, but one of their bullets hit the car and set off its horn, waking up residents of the neighborhood who called the police.

[8] At the same time, a force consisting mainly of Sayeret Tzanhanim paratroopers raided a multi-story building that housed militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Although the force had a doctor on hand, the Mossad agent at the wheel of the car carrying two of the wounded panicked due to the gunfire and drove to the beach.

250,000 people, 10 per cent of the Lebanese population, turned out for the funeral in Beirut of the slain PLO leaders and further tens of thousands attended demonstrations in other parts of the country.

In the end, Franjiyya had to admit that the Lebanese army was unable to defend the Palestinian refugee camps and he therefore reluctantly allowed the PLO to bring in heavier weapons and build fortifications.

[15] Documents seized from Kamal Adwan's apartment provided a wealth of intelligence on PLO operations in the occupied territories and enabled the Israeli authorities to carry out a series of arrests which severely damaged the Fatah network there.