In October 1972, Wael Zwaiter, the representative for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in Rome, returned to his apartment building on Piazza Annibaliano. After entering the lobby and pressing the button for the lift, he was ambushed by two Mossad operatives lying in wait who shot him 11 times and left him to die in a pool of blood.

Within hours, the four-man hit squad and their large support team had left Italy to return to Israel. The first retribution killing in response to the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics in September 1972 had been successful. Operation ‘Wrath of God’ was underway.

Over the next year, members of Black September (a breakaway militant faction of the Palestinian group Fatah) and the PLO thought to be involved

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