Khaled Ahmed Nazal (1948-10 June 1986) was the Secretary-General of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He was assassinated during Operation Wrath of God.
Biography[]
Khaled Ahmed Nazal was born in 1948 in Qabatiya, Mandatory Palestine (near Jenin). In 1969, after he and his family became refugees, he joined the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and became one of its most prominent military commanders. His forces carried out several attacks and suicide bombings, and in 1982 his forces fought Israel when they invaded Lebanon to deprive the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) of its safe haven in southern Lebanon and West Beirut. After the PLO was forced to leave Beirut on 21 August 1982, Nazal headed to Athens, Greece. Mossad monitored details of his life and residence, and tracked him down during Operation Wrath of God - he was held partly responsible for the Munich Massacre of 1972 and other attacks.
On 10 June 1986, Mossad gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on him at the door of the Sheraton Hotel. Four bullets hit him in the forehead, killing him. He was buried in the Martyrs' Cemetery of the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria, along with several other Palestinian leaders killed by Israel. Later that same year, fellow PLO leader Munzer Abu Ghazala was also assassinated in Athens.