George Habash , the medical student expelled from Lydda , went on to lead one of the best-known of the Palestinian militant groups , the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine . In September 1970 he masterminded the hijacking of four passenger jets bound for New York , an attack that put the Palestinian cause on the map . The PFLP was also behind the 1972 Lod Airport massacre , in which 27 people died , and the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight to Entebbe , which famously led to the IDF 's rescue of the hostages . Habash died of a heart attack in Amman in 2008
hijacking of four passenger jets
Dawson's Field hijackings
1948 Palestinian exodus from Lydda and Ramle