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Kozo Okamoto, Surviving Lod Airport Massacre Attacker, Dies at 78

Kozo Okamoto, the sole surviving member of the Japanese Red Army cell that carried out the 1972 Lod Airport massacre, has died in Beirut at age 78. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced his death in the Dahiya district. Okamoto was wounded and captured after the gun-and-grenade attack, sentenced to life in Israel, and released after 13 years in the 1985 Jibril prisoner exchange. He later received political asylum in Lebanon, which rejected Japanese extradition requests, and remained there until his death.

Sources

Secondary sources:123

Difference in reporting

Sources factually disagree on the Lod Airport massacre death toll: Israel National News reports 26 killed; Kikar HaShabbat and Ynet report 24. The remaining facts are uniform: Okamoto died in Beirut at 78, was the cell's sole surviving attacker, received a life sentence in Israel, and was released in the 1985 Jibril exchange.

Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of airliners at Ben Gurion Airport; contextual illustration, not the reported event.

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