| 1972 Israeli Bangkok embassy hostage crisis | |
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The attack site
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| Location | Bangkok, Thailand |
| Date | December 28, 1972 |
| Target | Israeli embassy |
| Attack type | hostage-taking |
| Perpetrator(s) | Four Palestinian militants. Black September claimed responsibility. |
The 1972 Israeli Bangkok embassy hostage crisis, which took place during December 28, 1972, was a raid by a squad of Palestinian militants, belonging to the Black September militant organization, on the Israeli embassy building in Bangkok in which the militants took held the Israeli embassy staff as hostages. After 19 hours of negotiations, the hijackers agreed to abandon the embassy in exchange for safe conduct and were flown to Egypt.
The attack began as two Black September operatives infiltrated a party being held at the embassy. Once these two were inside two other operatives climbed over the wall with machine guns and together the four took over the embassy. They allowed all the Thais to leave but kept the Israeli ambassador to Thailand Rehavam Amir, his wife, Israeli ambassador to Cambodia Simon Avimor, first secretary of the embassy Nitzan Hadas, his wife Ruth Hadas, and another Israeli staff member hostage.
The militants then moved their hostages to the second floor of the three story building and made their demands. The militants demanded that 36 prisoners would be released from Israeli prisons, including Kōzō Okamoto and the survivors of the Sabena incident. They threatened to blow up the embassy if these demands were not met by 8 am December 29.
After 19 hours of negotiation,[1] an agreement, subsequently dubbed the "Bangkok solution", was worked out.
Feeling that the Thai peoples celebration of the investiture of Crown Prince Vijiralongkorn should not be marred by a dispute that did not concern them, they guaranteed the terrorists safe conduct to Cairo,[2] while they left the hostages in the care of the Thais.
The Black September leadership was reported upset with the behavior of its operatives in settling the incident.[3]
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