What Happened to Operation Wrath of God?

Operation Wrath of God, also known as Operation Bayonet, was a highly secretive and controversial Israeli assassination campaign initiated in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Massacre. On September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists from the Black September group killed 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches, along with a West German police officer, during the Munich Summer Olympics. In response, then-Prime Minister Golda Meir authorized a secret committee, chaired by herself and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, to formulate a robust Israeli response. The committee concluded that to deter future attacks, those responsible for the Munich Massacre, directly or indirectly, needed to be assassinated.

The operation was directed by Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, with a hit squad code-named 'Bayonet' composed of Mossad agents and supported by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) special operations teams. The campaign began in October 1972 with the assassination of Wael Zwaiter, a PLO representative in Rome, who was shot 12 times. Over the next several years, Mossad agents tracked and killed dozens of alleged Black September and PLO members across Europe and the Middle East through shootings and bombings. A significant turning point was Operation Spring of Youth in April 1973, a sub-operation where Israeli commandos landed in Beirut, Lebanon, and assassinated three senior PLO leaders: Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar, Kamal Adwan, and Kamal Nasser.

The operation faced significant international scrutiny and controversy, particularly after the Lillehammer Affair on July 21, 1973. In this incident, Mossad agents mistakenly killed Ahmed Bouchiki, an innocent Moroccan waiter, in Lillehammer, Norway, believing him to be Ali Hassan Salameh, a key Black September operative. This blunder led to the arrest and conviction of five Mossad operatives and the temporary suspension of the program by Prime Minister Meir due to intense international pressure. The operation was later recommenced under Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and Ali Hassan Salameh, often considered the mastermind of the Munich Massacre, was eventually killed in Beirut in 1979 by a car bomb.

The consequences of Operation Wrath of God were far-reaching. It contributed to rising tensions between Israel and Arab countries and led to counterattacks by Black September. While it aimed to deter terrorism, some analyses suggest it also inadvertently boosted the profile of the Palestinian cause globally. The operation's ethical and legal implications regarding extrajudicial killings remain a subject of debate.

As of 2026-08-21, Operation Wrath of God continues to be a significant subject of historical and intelligence studies. Recent academic works, such as Aviva Guttmann's book "Operation Wrath of God: The Secret History of European Intelligence and Mossad's Assassination Campaign," published in 2025, have provided unprecedented insights. Guttmann's research, based on previously untapped archives of the Club de Berne (a secret intelligence-sharing group), reveals the crucial and often overlooked role of European intelligence agencies in facilitating Mossad's operations through extensive information sharing. This cooperation, sometimes tacit and sometimes active, allowed Mossad to gather intelligence and operate more effectively, highlighting a complex web of international intelligence relations during the Cold War era. The book, which won the 2026 Kjetil Hatlebrekke Memorial Book Prize, underscores that Mossad's success was not solely due to its own capabilities but also to this hidden network of international support.