[3] In August 1969, leaders in the Palestinian left-wing organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) learned that Yitzhak Rabin, then Israeli ambassador to the United States, was scheduled to be aboard a Trans World Airlines (TWA) Rome–Athens–Tel Aviv flight.

On 29 August two operatives, Leila Khaled and Salim Issawi, hijacked the aircraft.

The hijackers made the pilots land the aircraft at Damascus International Airport in Syria.

[citation needed] At the terminal, Khaled delivered a speech to the passengers, further explaining the motives of the hijacking.

She said, "I assumed [Shadia Abu Ghazaleh's] name on flight 840 to tell the world about the crimes the Israelis inflict upon our people and to demonstrate to you that they make no distinctions between men, women and children.

But for their own propaganda objectives they repeatedly state in your press how we attack their 'innocent' women and children and how cruel we are.