The 1974 Beit She'an attack, which took place during 19 November 1974, was a raid by a squad of three

Palestinian militants Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence perpetrated for political ends in relation to the State of Palestine or in connection with Palestinian nationalism. Common political objectives include self-determination in and sovereig ...

, belonging to the

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP; ar, الجبهة الديموقراطية لتحرير فلسطين, ''al-Jabha al-Dīmūqrāṭiyya li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn'') is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organi ...

militant organization, on the Israeli city of

Beit She'an Beit She'an ( he, בֵּית שְׁאָן '), also Beth-shean, formerly Beisan ( ar, بيسان ), is a town in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below se ...

. Four civilians were killed during the event and more than 20 civilians were injured. The three attackers were killed by responding Israeli special forces. The incident became notorious after an enraged mob of Israeli civilians that the army and police failed to control burned the bodies of the militants.

The attack

On Tuesday, 19 November 1974, three Palestinian militants who infiltrated into Israel from

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

disguised as laborers. The militant squad arrived at the town of

in northern Israel and entered a 4-storey building in the Eliyahu neighborhood. The militants were equipped with

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas operated, gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian s ...

rifles, grenades, bombs, axes, as well as a loudspeaker and leaflets for the negotiations with the Israeli security forces. Initially the militants fired through the apartment doors hitting Mazal Edry, who died later of her wounds in the stairwell. Then the squad broke into the apartment of the Bibas family who lived on the third floor. After murdering the mother of the family, they threw grenades from the windows, demanding the release of their comrades from Israeli prisons. During the event, the three children of the Bibas family, jumped out of the apartment from their third-floor window, suffering only light injuries. Jean Pierre Alimi, a resident of the neighborhood, was killed by the militants while he helped evacuate the wounded. The people evacuated from the building alerted the

Border Police A border guard of a country is a national security agency that performs border security. Some of the national border guard agencies also perform coast guard (as in Germany, Italy or Ukraine) and rescue service duties. Name and uniform In diff ...

who soon afterwards surrounded the building. An attempt was made to negotiate with the militants. The

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

sent a team from the elite

Sayeret Matkal General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (formerly Unit 269 or Unit 262), more commonly known as Sayeret Matkal ( he, סיירת מטכ״ל) is the special reconnaissance unit (''sayeret'') of Israel's General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, General ...

special forces unit, which included Muki Betser,

Shay Avital Shay Avital Rapoport (; born in 1952) is a Aluf, Major General (Ret.) in the Israel Defense Forces, IDF and former head of the Special Operations Forces Command (Depth Corps). During his military career Avital was, among others, Commander of Saye ...

, and

Nehemiah Tamari Nehemiah Tamari ( he, נחמיה תמרי; November 17, 1946 – January 12, 1994) was an Israeli major general (''Aluf'') and the commander of Central Command in 1993–1994. Military service Tamari was born on kibbutz Ein Harod. After finishin ...

. After negotiations failed, the Sayeret Matkal team broke into the building, and killed the three militants in an exchange of fire. During the exchange of fire, the father of the Bibas family was killed. During the entire event some 20 Israeli civilians were injured, many of them children whom jumped out of their apartment windows in order to save their lives.

Fatalities

* Mazal Edry, 42, of

* Jean Pierre Alimi, 37, of

* Zohar Bibas, 53, of

* Yehuda Bibas, 53, of

The perpetrators

After the attack the Palestinian militant organization

claimed responsibility for the attack. Prior to this attack the organization performed several major attacks against Israeli targets, including: the

Avivim school bus massacre The Avivim school bus bombing was a terrorist attack on an Israeli school bus on 22 May 1970, in which 12 civilians were killed, nine of them children, and 25 were wounded, one of whom died of a wound sustained in the attack 44 years later. The ...

carried out on 22 May 1970, and the

Ma'alot massacre The Ma'alot massacreSources describing the event as a "massacre": * "The day after the Ma'alot massacre, condemned by Pope Paul VI and most Western leaders as 'an evil outrage…'" Frank Gervasi. ''Thunder Over the Mediterranean'', McKay, 1975 ...

carried out on 15 May 1974.

Aftermath

After the militants were killed, a large crowd of locals gathered around the building. The police and IDF forces at the site failed to stop them as the angry residents entered the apartment and threw the bodies of the militants out the window. The angry mob poured petrol on the bodies and torched them. The body of one of the victims was accidentally lit as well. The maltreatment of the militants bodies was later on condemned by the Minister

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...

and Rabbi

Shlomo Goren Shlomo Goren ( he, שלמה גורן; February 3, 1917 – October 29, 1994), was a Polish-born Israeli Orthodox Religious Zionist rabbi and Talmudic scholar who was considered a foremost authority on Jewish law (Halakha). Goren founded and serve ...

who participated in the funerals of the victims. Years after the event an avenue in Beit She'an was named "Shderat HaArba'ah" ("The Avenue of the Four") in memory of the victims of the attack.

References

External links

Terrorists Had Killed 4 Residents of a Village Near Jordan Border
– published on

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

on 20 November 1974
Arab Terrorists Raid Israel, Grab Hostages
– published on the

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...

on 19 November 1974
Arab Terrorists Raid Israeli Town
– published on the

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

on 20 November 1974
Arab Terrorists Kill 4 Israelis; Die In Shootout
– published on the News And Courier on 20 November 1974
Israel Condemns Guerrillas And Vows To Eliminate Them
– published on the

Lodi News-Sentinel The ''Lodi News-Sentinel'' is a daily newspaper based in Lodi, California, United States, and serving northern San Joaquin and southern Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorp ...