Route Case Number 300

On April 12, 1984, a bus carrying passengers on the Tel Aviv - Ashkelon route was seized by four terrorists from the Palestinian PFLP on the road from Tel Aviv. All the terrorists were from Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip . They demanded the release of 500 detained PLO members from prisons in exchange for the release of the hostages ^{[1] [2] [3]} . They were armed with rifles and grenades ^[4] or, according to other sources, knives and pistols ^[5] . At their request, the bus proceeded towards the Gaza Strip, on the way the militants dropped off a pregnant woman who called the police and transmitted information about the seizure and the demands of the terrorists ^[6] . The Israelis feared that the militants, hiding behind hostages, would break into Egypt , so near the city of Deir al-Balah , 6 miles from the border with Egypt, Israeli soldiers shot a bus and it was stopped ^[7] . Defense Minister Moshe Arens and Shabak chief Abraham Shalom arrived at the scene of the operation ^[8] .

Israel did not comply with the demands of the terrorists, although it was negotiating with them. Early in the morning of April 13, special forces Sayeret Matkal and the General Security Service carried out an operation to free the hostages. The military stormed the bus, during the operation one of the passengers was killed - a 20-year-old medical officer, Irit Portuguese, one of the passengers was slightly injured ^[5] . The assault was commanded by the future Minister of Defense tat-aluf Yitzhak Mordechai .

Due to the death of Irit Portuguese, sources diverge. According to official figures from the Israeli Ministry of Defense, she was killed by terrorists ^[9] . Journalist Georg Mordel claims that one of the Palestinian militants killed her with an ax ^[10] . Journalist Gidi Weitz writes that an Israeli woman was mistakenly shot dead by soldiers. ^[11]

It was officially announced that all the terrorists were killed during the operation and their corpses were presented. However, on April 15, the Hadashot newspaper, citing the New York Times , published information according to which two of the four terrorists were taken alive. This meant that these terrorists were shot dead after they were neutralized.

An investigation was launched, initially focusing on issues of personal responsibility for what happened. As a result of the investigation, the commander of the operation, Yitzhak Mordechai , appeared before the court, but was found not guilty.

On April 27, the Hadashot newspaper, bypassing censorship, reported on the work of the commission of inquiry. After that, the order of the chief censor to close the newspaper appeared. In response, the newspaper published a photograph taken by Alex Liback, in which two of the four terrorists are visible captured alive immediately after the operation. The scandal got out of hand. This case received a great response in Israel and raised the issue of regulating the activities of special services.

In November 1985, three Shabak executives — Rafi Malka , Reuven Hazak, and Peleg Radai — demanded that the head of Shabak, Abraham Shalom, publicize the details of the case or immediately resign. Shalom did not accept the ultimatum, and three initiators resigned.

On May 18, 1986, information appeared that Abraham Shalom gave the order to kill the terrorists after the capture. It was also alleged that Shabak destroyed the documentary evidence in the case and falsified the testimonies of the officers. The government was against starting an investigation against the Shabak leadership, the prosecutor's office was in favor; as a result, a compromise was reached: Abraham Shalom, his deputy Reuven Hazak, and another 13 employees resigned, after which Shalom and three other high-ranking Shabak chiefs appealed to the president for pardon. The president granted their request; subsequently another 7 Shabak employees were pardoned in the same way.

In 1996, one of the pardons, Ehud Yatom , head of the Shabak operations department and brother of the current Mossad director Dani Yatom , admitted that he was the one who personally killed two terrorists on the orders of A. Shalom ^[12] .

• Dan Raviv, Yossi Melman. History of Israeli Intelligence Services = Every spy a prince. The complete history of Israel "s intelligence community. - Moscow: International Relations, 2000. - 528 pp. - (Secret Missions). - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 5-7133-1021-3 .
• Geisel Z. Appendix 3: Events and incidents in the history of Israel that had socio-political significance // Political structures of the State of Israel . - M .: Gesharim-Bridges of Culture, 2013 .-- 664 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-93273-370-7 .
• Georg Mordel. The “case” of route 300 // Russian Globe: an online journal. - 2007. - March ( No. 3 ).
• Eugene Kravchik. Leave to return - Our meeting ... // News of the week. - 2006. Archived on August 20, 2011.