Roanoke Times · Roanoke, Virginia · 2 November 2012

CP-2012-001

Israel confirms killing Arafat deputy in '88

Israel's military censor approved the release of the information, effectively amounting to acknowledgement of the kill.

Aron Heller, Associated Press, Jerusalem

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Transcribed from the clipping

“JERUSALEM — Israel acknowledged Thursday it killed the deputy of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in a 1988 raid in Tunisia, lifting a nearly 25-year veil of secrecy and allowing a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of its secret operations.

One of the commandos was disguised as a woman on a romantic vacation, and one of the weapons was hidden in a box of chocolates. Khalil al-Wazir, who was better known by his nom de guerre Abu Jihad, founded Fatah, the dominant faction in the Palestinian Liberation Organization, with Arafat and was blamed for a series of deadly attacks against Israelis.

Two of those involved in the operation that killed al-Wazir now hold high political office in Israel — Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon. At the time, Barak was deputy military chief, and Yaalon was head of the elite commando unit Sayeret Matkal. Their precise roles in the operation were not divulged, and both men’s offices declined comment.

Israel has long been suspected of assassinating al-Wazir. But only now has the country’s military censor cleared the Yediot Ahronot daily to publish the information, including an interview with the commando who killed him, at least 12 years after the newspaper obtained the information. ‘I shot him with a long burst of fire.

I was careful not to hurt his wife, who had showed up there. He died,’ commando Nahum Lev told Yediot prior to his death in a motorcycle wreck in 2000. ‘Abu Jihad was involved in horrible acts against civilians. He was a dead man walking. I shot him without hesitation.’ Dozens of similar operations have been attributed to Israel over the decades.

But Israel rarely takes responsibility and typically does not comment about covert operations. Israeli officials did not openly confirm the operation. But the censor’s decision to allow publication, after years of stifling the account, amounted in effect to confirmation.

The military censor’s main task is to block publication of material deemed a threat to national security. Israel has a longstanding policy of preventing publication of any information that would expose agents, tactics and intelligence gathering methods or put anyone still alive who was involved in harm’s way.

In the al-Wazir case, though, it appears that after years of rumors and foreign reports claiming to expose the operation, along with the death of the triggerman, the censor’s office decided to drop its objection to publication… Another team killed a separate bodyguard and a gardener before entering the expansive villa.

Lev’s partner was the first to fire at the Palestinian leader. When Lev noticed al-Wazir reaching for a weapon, he shot and killed him. Other participants then ‘verified the kill’ by shooting the body several more times before the forces retreated to sea and back to Israel, the Yediot report said. ‘I felt bad about the gardener,’ Lev told Yediot.

‘But in an operation such as this you have to make sure that any potential resistance is neutralized.’ The Palestinians have long accused Israel of being behind the assassination. Abbas Zaki, a top official in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, said the Palestinians and Tunisia should now ‘work to bring Israel to justice.’”

Context added by this archive

A killing confirmed twenty-four years later because a military censor allowed it to be printed. The gardener killed on the way in is mentioned twice and never named.

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