The hijackers of the '' Achille Lauro '' in their demands to be met before they freed their hostages specified only one by name Samir Kuntar . The Lebanese Kuntar was a friend of Abu Abbas , the mastermind behind the hijacking . Kuntar and an accomplice had been jailed by Israel five years before for attempting on April 22 , 1979 to kidnap a Jewish family in Nahariya , Northern Israel , close to the Lebanese border . The botched kidnapping ( which had been planned by Abbas and Kuntar ) had resulted in the death of an Israeli policeman Eliyahu Shahar , 31-year-old father Danny Kaiser and his two daughters four-year-old Einat , and two year-old Yael – leaving only wife and mother Smadar Haran Kaiser alive
The botched kidnapping
1979 Nahariya attack
Achille Lauro hijacking