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Ma'alot massacre

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The Ma'alot massacre was a school massacre in Ma'alot, Israel, that occurred on May 15, 1974.

On this date, the 26th anniversary of Israeli independence, three Arabs subsequently identified as members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a faction affiliated with the PLO, broke into the high school in Ma'alot, a community in northern Israel, where a group of 100 14-16 year olds were sleeping on the floor after a day spent hiking.

The Arabs had infiltrated into Israel from Lebanon dressed as Israeli soldiers. They immediately killed a security guard and some of the students. Other students managed to escape by jumping out of a window. The remaining students and teachers were held as hostages.

The hostage-takers presented their demands the next morning: release Arab militants from Israeli prisons, or they would kill the students. The deadline was set at 6:00 p.m. the same day.

The Knesset, the Israeli parliament, met in an emergency session, and by 3:00 p.m. a decision was reached to negotiate, but the terrorists refused a request for more time.

At 5:45 p.m., a unit of the elite Golani Brigade stormed the building. The hostage-takers were killed in the assault, along with 21 students. Reports vary as to the exact circumstances of the killings. Some reports say that the hostage-takers detonated their grenades and shot the children. All told, 26 of the victims were killed and 66 were wounded. Included in the death toll were several people the hostage-takers had killed on their way to the school the night before.

The names of the 21 students who died during the assault: Ilana Turgeman, Rachel Aputa, Yocheved Mazoz, Sarah Ben-Shim'on, Yona Sabag, Yafa Cohen. Shoshana Cohen, Michal Sitrok, Malka Amrosy, Aviva Saada, Yocheved Diyi, Yaakov Levi, Yaakov Kabla, Rina Cohen, Ilana Ne'eman, Sarah Madar, Tamar Dahan, Sarah Soper, Lili Morad, David Madar, Yehudit Madar.

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