1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon The 1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon ( known as Operation " Spring of Youth , part of Operation " Wrath of God ) took place on the night of April 9 and early morning of April 10 , 1973 , when Israel Defense Forces special forces units attacked several Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO ) targets in Beirut and Sidon , Lebanon . The operation is generally considered to be part of the retaliation for the Munich massacre at the Summer Olympics in 1972 . The Israeli troops arrived at the Lebanese beaches in speedboats launched from missile boats offshore . Mossad agents awaited the forces on the beaches with cars rented the previous day , and then drove them to their targets and later back to the beaches for extraction . During the operation , three of the highest - level PLO leaders , surprised at home , were killed , along with other PLO members . Several Lebanese security people and civilian neighbors were also killed . Two Israeli soldiers were killed . Background . In February 1973 , Ehud Barak , the then commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit , obtained photographs and precise information on the whereabouts of three senior PLO leaders : The men lived in a pair of seven - story buildings in the fashionable neighborhood of Verdun in West Beirut . These buildings were residential housing for both British and Italian families along with Arab families . One building housed Al - Najjar , and a building across the street housed Adwan and Nasser . Barak and his team immediately began planning on an operation to eliminate them . The plan they came up with was to land from navy ships on the Lebanese coast and infiltrate into Lebanon disguised as tourists , with some of the commandos to be disguised as women ( Barak was disguised as a brunette woman ) . Before the mission , the forces involved trained for the operation in the apartments of northern Tel Aviv , similar in construction to those they would be assaulting in Beirut . They also practiced cross - dressing and walking around disguised as lovers . The operation . On April 9 , 1973 , Israeli Navy missile boat s departed from Haifa naval base , carrying the commandos and Zodiac speedboats on board . When the missile boats reached the shores of Beirut , the Zodiacs were lowered into the water . To avoid being heard , they turned the motors off when they were a few hundred meters from land and rowed the rest of the way in . The commandos came ashore where Mossad agents were waiting for them with three cars . The agents drove them to their targets . Three Sayeret Matkal commando teams entered the buildings and planted explosive fuses at the apartment doors of their targets , while a backup team led by Barak remained outside and stood guard to repel PLO reinforcements or Lebanese police . When the fuses exploded , the commandos stormed the apartments , gunned down the three targets , and seized whatever documents they could find . Al - Najjar ' s wife was killed during the melee , as was an elderly Italian woman responding to the commotion . At the same time , the backup team engaged in a firefight with a few dozen Lebanese policemen and PLO reinforcements . Two Lebanese policemen were killed . The responding forces were beaten back , and Mossad cars were used to extract the commandos . While driving to the beach , they encountered a Lebanese Army troop carrier as it scanned the shore . They were not confronted and continued on to the beach , where the commandos and drivers abandoned the cars and returned to the missile boats in Zodiacs . At the same time , 14 Israeli commandos , mainly Sayeret Tzanhanim paratroopers , raided a multi - story building that housed militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( PFLP ) . The team was disguised as civilians and led by Amnon Lipkin - Shahak . The Israeli team met strong resistance early on from nearly 100 militants guarding it , and engaged in a close - quarters battle . Teams of PFLP gunmen on the building ' s upper floors repeatedly attempted to take the elevator to the ground floor and join the battle , but each team was wiped out by commandos waiting near the doors . The team managed to place a large explosive charge inside the building and detonate it , causing part of the building to collapse . Lipkin - Shahak then requested an air evacuation . The commandos were extracted by Israeli Air Force helicopters . Two Israeli soldiers and dozens of PFLP fighters were killed during the fighting . Two secondary forces attacked the Fatah headquarters for Gaza operations and a Fatah workshop in south Beirut . A third force of Shayetet 13 naval commandos landed in north Beirut and destroyed a small Fatah explosives workshop , while another paratroop unit raided and destroyed the PLO ' s main garage , located just south of Sidon .