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15-534: Among the prisoners released by Israel were Kozo Okamoto —one of the perpetrators of the Lod Airport Massacre in May 1972, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment—and Ahmed Yassin , a Gazan Muslim Brotherhood leader who was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in 1983 and who later became the spiritual leader of Hamas . Another prisoner released was Ali Jiddah, who had served 17 years for planting of

30-411: A TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome, hijacked to Beirut, were released. On 1 July 1985 Israel announced that it was ready to release Shia detainees from its prisons. Over the next several weeks, Israel released over 700 Shia prisoners, but Israel denied that the prisoners' release was related to the hijacking. In July 1985, 331 Lebanese Shias freed from Israeli detention claimed their release

45-482: A bomb near a Jerusalem hospital in 1968 that wounded nine Israelis. Another prisoner released was Ziyad al-Nakhalah , who was serving a life sentence, and who has been the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad since 28 September 2018. Abdullah Nimar Darwish , on the other hand, renounced violence by Palestinians within Israel's pre-1967 borders . The Israeli government faced harsh public criticism for agreeing to release

60-880: A school principal. His older brother is Takeshi Okamoto, a member of the Red Army Faction , which hijacked an airliner in March 1970 to North Korea. He was a 24-year-old botany student when he was recruited to the Japanese Red Army. He was later detained in Lebanon . During his stay in Lebanon, Okamoto converted to Islam . On May 30, 1972, Kōzō Okamoto along with Yasuyuki Yasuda, and Tsuyoshi Okudaira , landed at Israel's Lod Airport via Air France Flight 132 from Rome . The name in Okamoto's forged passport

75-578: Is still wanted by the Japanese police and Japan has requested his extradition . As of 2016 , he was reported to be living in a refugee camp near Beirut . In May 2017, Okamoto gave an interview to the Mainichi Shimbun in Beirut. He said "I want to return to Japan once". On May 30, 2022, Okamoto appeared at a ceremony in Beirut marking the 50th anniversary of the attack, laying a wreath on

90-571: The Japanese Red Army . The idea behind the joint effort was for the JRA to carry out attacks for the PLFP, and vice versa , in order to reduce suspicion. The plan worked, as Okamoto and his comrades attracted little attention prior to their attack. Okamoto and his comrades killed 26 people and wounded 80 more. Seventeen of the victims were Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico. Yasuyuki Yasuda

105-506: The 1,150 security prisoners, among them those sentenced to life imprisonment and responsible for the killing of many Israeli citizens, particularly since the exchange did not include the three IDF soldiers who were declared missing in action after the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982. One of the Israeli negotiators resigned in protest against the agreement. All of the government ministers, with

120-661: The exception of Yitzhak Navon , supported the agreement. Many of the Palestinian prisoners released in this agreement later went on to form the backbone of the leadership of the First Intifada , which broke out less than three years after the agreement. The agreement with the PFLP-GC reportedly took nearly a year to negotiate. The nickname for the agreement came about as a reference to Palestinian militant leader Ahmed Jibril . On 30 June 1985, 39 foreigners seized on

135-763: The hostages on board; Israel refused to comply. Okamoto was released in 1985 after 13 years in prison, as part of the Jibril Agreement , a prisoner exchange with Palestinian militant factions for captive Israeli soldiers. After his release from prison in Israel, Kōzō Okamoto moved to Libya , then Syria , and finally to Lebanon where he reunited with other members of the Japanese Red Army. On February 15, 1997, Lebanon detained five Red Army members, Haruo Wakō , Masao Adachi , Mariko Yamamoto, Kazuo Tohira and Okamoto for using forged passports and visa violations. They were sentenced to three years in prison. The sentence

150-566: Was Daisuke Namba , Crown Prince Hirohito's would be assassin. After disembarking from the plane the three members of the JRA proceeded to the baggage claim area. Upon retrieving their luggage, they took out automatic weapons packed inside the suitcases and opened fire on other passengers in the baggage claim area. The attack was a joint operation of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO), and

165-406: Was accidentally shot dead by one of the other attackers. Tsuyoshi Okudaira was killed by one of his own grenades, either due to premature detonation or a suicide. Kōzō Okamoto was wounded and captured trying to escape the terminal. Okamoto was put on trial in an Israeli military court under the 1948 Emergency Regulations. His court-appointed lawyers were Max Kritzman and David Rotlevy; Kritzman, who

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180-565: Was chief lawyer, had experience defending Israelis charged under the Emergency Regulations. Of Okamoto, he complained that "this man will not cooperate." Okamoto pleaded guilty, ensuring that he did not get sentenced to death. He also protested his attorneys' requests for a psychiatric evaluation. In his final statement he told the court: "When I was a child, I was told that when people died they became stars...We three Red Army soldiers wanted to become Orion when we died." Okamoto

195-439: Was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel. During the incarceration, he requested to convert to Judaism and tried to circumcise himself with nail clippers . He stated that he was tortured during his imprisonment, being "forced to eat like a dog" and emerged from imprisonment emaciated. On July 20, 1973, PFLP and JRA operatives hijacked Japan Air Lines Flight 404 , demanding Okamoto's release in exchange for

210-406: Was part of a prisoner exchange deal, but the Israeli government formally denied that connection. Kozo Okamoto Kōzō Okamoto ( 岡本 公三 , Okamoto Kōzō , born December 7, 1947) is a Japanese communist and member of the Japanese Red Army (JRA), responsible for the massacre of 26 passengers at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel . Kozo Okamoto is the youngest child of

225-515: Was passed by Judge Soheil Abdul-Shams on July 31, 1997. After their prison term was completed, the four other members of the JRA were forcibly deported to Jordan and from Amman , Jordan via a chartered Russian plane to Japan. The Lebanese government, however, granted political asylum to Okamoto because, according to the Lebanese government, he "had participated in resistance operations against Israel and had been tortured in Israeli jails." Okamoto

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