This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. A year-old Jewish American man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer , was murdered by the hijackers and thrown overboard.
The hijacking sparked the " Sigonella Crisis ". Arafat was backed by the Soviet Union and was helped to escape Lebanon by the president's brother, Rifaat al-Assad , and his "Red Knights" of Alawite notables near the Lebanese border with Syria.
When the attempt to wrest control failed, the Syrian military backed the mutineers in an attack on Arafat loyalists within the Lebanese city of Tripoli. Throughout the s, other members of the PLO, as well as the Palestine Liberation Front PLF , launched attacks on both civilian and military targets in the north of Israel, across the Lebanese border.
The headquarters was completely destroyed in this attack, and sixty PLO members were killed. When Achille Lauro was hijacked, speculation arose that this was an act of retaliation for the Israeli bombing in Tunis. This was disputed by Abu Abbas ' widow Reem al-Nimer in According to al-Nimer, the hijacking had been planned eleven months in advance, and the hijackers had already been on two 'dummy' training runs on Achille Lauro.
The plan was to open fire on Israeli soldiers when the ship reached Ashdod β a suicide mission. The second faction was headed by Abd al-Fatah Ghanim, who also opposed Arafat. In exchange for the release of hostages aboard Achille Lauro , the hijackers demanded the release of Lebanese national Samir Kuntar , a friend of Abbas. The botched kidnapping had resulted in the death of Israeli policeman Eliyahu Shahar, year-old father Danny Kaiser, and his two daughters, four-year-old Einat and two year-old Yael, leaving wife and mother Smadar Haran Kaiser as the sole survivor.
