Operation Wrath of God

The Mossad campaign that pursued the perpetrators of the 1972 Munich massacre

Overview

Operation Wrath of God pursued those Israel held responsible for the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, conducting operations across Europe through the 1970s. Mossad teams eliminated targets linked to Black September, but the Lillehammer operation in Norway killed an innocent Moroccan waiter, Ahmed Bouchiki, in 1973, an error Israel later acknowledged with compensation to his family while Norwegian courts convicted team members. The campaign remains a defining study in the promise, peril, and legality of targeted reprisal operations.