March 13, 2009.
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.”
