Israel Admits Assassinating Palestinian Leader in 1988

Israel ordered Mossad to kill Khalil Ibrahim Wazir, raising questions about the alleged assassination of Yasser Arafat

Israel has officially admitted after more than two decades of secrecy that it ordered the Israeli spy agency Mossad to carry out the assassination of Palestinian leader Khalil Ibrahim Wazir.

Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, founded the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah Party with Yasser Arafat and was assassinated in Tunisia in 1988. More than two dozen Israeli commandos attacked his heavily guarded home, “including two agents who approached the house posing as a vacationing couple but carrying guns with silencers,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

The killing was widely believe to have been carried out by Israel, although Israeli leadership refused to confirm or deny the accusations. The international community, including the United States, condemned the illegal assassination.

Wazir “was believed to have been behind numerous strikes against Israelis,” reports the Times, “including a 1978 bus-hijacking attack that killed 38 Israelis, and to have helped organize the 1987 Palestinian uprising known as the first Intifada from his base in Tunisia.”

The admission confirms allegations that Israel’s Mossad service in a lawless para-military group, and in fact raises more questions about whether or not Israel also killed Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004 of mysterious causes.

Many have alleged that Arafat was poisoned, and laid blame on Israel. Arafat’s body was recently exhumed in order to run tests for traces of polonium, a chemical known to be used in political assassinations.

Author: John Glaser

John Glaser writes for Antiwar.com.