1968 Israeli raid on Beirut Airport
1968 Israeli Special Forces raid at Beirut Airport
Operation Gift (Hebrew: מבצע תשורה, mivtza t'shura) was an Israeli Special Forces operation at the Beirut International Airport on the evening of 28 December 1968, in retaliation for the attack on the Israeli Airliner El Al Flight 253 two days earlier and the hijacking of El Al Flight 426 five months earlier, both by the Lebanon and Syria-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The commandos from the Israeli Defence Forces elite Sayeret Matkal destroyed 12 passenger airplanes belonging to Middle East Airlines (MEA) and Lebanese International Airways (LIA) and two cargo planes belonging to Trans Mediterranean Airways (TMA). There were no casualties reported in the raid.
Operation
At 20:37 on 28 December 1968, eight Israeli Air Force Super Frelon helicopters and eight Bell helicopters took off from Ramat David Airbase for Lebanon. Six of the Super Frelon helicopters carried the attack force, which consisted of 64 Sayeret Matkal commandos, with the other two acting in reserve. Seven of the Bell helicopters were assigned an active role in the mission, with one remaining in reserve. Of the seven, five were to act in support of evacuating the commandos, one was to serve as command center of the operation, and another was to provide support in patrol and transmission.
The helicopters rendezvoused 12 kilometers off the Lebanese coast before moving towards Beirut. A force of 36 commandos was held on standby for quick deployment at Ramat David Airbase in case a rescue mission would have to be carried out. Two A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft and two Vautour fighter-bombers also orbited to provide air support against any Lebanese military intervention if needed.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “1968 Israeli raid on Beirut Airport” as 1968 Israeli Special Forces raid at Beirut Airport. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as 1968 Israeli Special Forces raid at Beirut Airport. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2655859. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1968.
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This entry incorporates text from “1968 Israeli raid on Beirut Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.