Misgav Am hostage crisis

During the night of Monday, April 7, 1980, a squad of five Palestinian militants belonging to the Iraqi-backed Arab Liberation Front, armed with AK-47 assault rifles and hand grenades, cut the border fence between Israel and Lebanon at around 1:00 am and crossed into Israel. The squad infiltrated the kibbutz of Misgav Am in northern Israel and reached the children's sleeping quarters, where children aged 1½ to 3 were sleeping, supervised by some of their parents.

At the entrance to the dormitory, the militants encountered kibbutz secretary Sammy (Samuel) Shani, who was repairing light fixtures in the building. Armed only with a screwdriver, he attempted to block their entry and was shot dead. The militants then entered the building, killed two-year-old Eyal Gluska, and took two babies from their cribs, including Shani's own two-month-old son. They retreated to the second floor with the two babies, where five more toddlers and an adult, Meir Peretz, were present, and barricaded themselves in. Kibbutz members managed to rescue several women and children from the building during the raid. By about 2:30 am, Israeli military forces had surrounded the building and began negotiations.

Two rescue attempts followed. The first, by the Sayeret Golani unit of the Golani Brigade, failed; during it, 19-year-old combat medic Sgt. Eldad Tsafrir was killed, and his body could not be evacuated from the building's entrance. The militants then used loudspeakers to issue demands, including the release of named prisoners held in Israeli jails, safe passage on a plane out of the country, and involvement of the Romanian ambassador in negotiations.

After lengthy negotiations, at around 10:00 pm on April 8, a team from the Sayeret Matkal special forces unit, commanded by Major General Uzi Dayan, breached the building through several openings and retook it in an operation lasting about two minutes. All five militants were killed and all hostages were rescued. Six Sayeret Matkal soldiers were injured. During the takeover, one militant shot the tied-up and prone Meir Peretz in the legs before detonating a hand grenade on himself.

In total, three Israelis were killed: two-year-old Eyal Gluska, 36-year-old kibbutz member Sammy Shani, and Sgt. Eldad Tsafrir. Four other children, a kibbutz member, and 11 Israeli soldiers were injured in the overall incident.

The Arab Liberation Front, described as a radical guerrilla group within the PLO, claimed responsibility for the attack in an announcement made in Beirut, stating the goal was the release of 50 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

In response, Israel conducted Operation High Voltage on April 17, 1980, in which Shayetet 13 naval commandos raided and destroyed a guerrilla base at Ras el-Sheikh in southern Lebanon, roughly 40 kilometers north of the Israeli border. An IDF spokesman said the base served as a supply center and staging point for attacks on Israel. Six guerrillas were killed in that operation.