The Munich massacre was perpetrated during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich . 11 members of the Israeli team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists . A botched German rescue attempt led to the death of all 11 Israeli athletes and coaches . Five of the terrorists were shot and three survived unharmed . The three surviving Palestinians were released without charge by the German authorities a month later . The Israeli government responded with an assassination campaign against the organizers and a raid on the PLO headquarters in Lebanon . Other notable events include the hijacking of several civilian airliners , the Savoy Hotel attack , the Zion Square explosive refrigerator and the Coastal Road massacre . During the 1970s and the early 1980s , Israel suffered attacks from PLO bases in Lebanon , such as the Avivim school bus massacre in 1970 and the Ma'alot massacre in 1974 in which Palestinians attacked a school in Ma'alot killing twenty-two children
Ma'alot massacre
Ma'alot massacre
History of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict