PA TV Celebrates Most Murderous Terror Attack in Israeli History

Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) The Palestinian Authority (PA) celebrated the single most murderous attack against Israeli civilians by broadcasting an hour-long special Wednesday on its official television station.

Arabs who penetrated into Israel by rubber dinghies from Lebanon carried out the attack, known in Israel as the Coastal Road Terror Attack, on March 11, 1978. They hijacked a tourist bus and killed 38 civilians, 13 of them children.. PA TV celebrated the attack on the anniversary of the hijacking with an hour-long special. The program included interviews with terrorists who described the planning and implementation of the murder spree.

Palestinian Media Watch reported that the program opened with the narrator glorifying the attack as: “…one of the most important and most prominent special actions, executed by the Palestinian revolution by sea, on the coast between Haifa and Tel Aviv. This action, which was carried out by a group of heroes and led by the heroic fighter Dalal Mughrabi, had a great impact on continuing events of the Arab-Israeli conflict."

Mughrabi and 11 other terrorists landed by Zodiac boats on a beach near Ma'agan Michael, north of Tel Aviv. They fatally shot American photographer Gail Rubin who was taking nature photographs nearby, reached the Coastal Highway and commandeered a bus that was carrying Egged bus drivers and their families on a day outing.

Passengers burned alive

The bus continued driving south on the Coastal Road (Highway 2) while the terrorists fired and threw grenades at passing cars, shot passengers and dumped at least one body out of the bus. At one point, they hijacked another bus and forced the passengers from the first bus to board it. An explosion caused either by an exploding fuel tank or a grenade set the bus on fire, killing 38 civilians, 13 of them children. 71 Israelis were wounded.

An article published in the July 10, 2008 edition of the PA’s Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda daily newspaper called Al-Mughrabi "a living legend and a wonderful example for all women."

Al Jazeera TV also aired a program in 2008 focusing on Al-Mughrabi and extolling her exploits. The focus on the terrorist came on the heels of the transfer of her body to the Hizbullah as part of the ransom for the bodies of IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

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