On June 3, 1982, Palestinian terrorists attempted to assassinate Israel's then-ambassador to the UK, Shlomo Argov, shooting him in the head as he got into his car following his attendance at an event at London's Dorchester Hotel.
The assassination attempt was used as the trigger to invade Lebanon on June 6, leading to the First Lebanon War, according to statements by then-defense minister Ariel Sharon at the time. Argov was appointed as ambassador to the UK in September 1979 by then-prime minister Menachem Begin, who was still in office when the Lebanon War started.
The war led to the expulsion of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon, and an 18-year IDF military occupation of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River until May 2000.
It directly led to the deaths of 657 IDF soldiers between 1982 and 1985, with an additional 256 killed during the military occupation until 2000, as well as many more wounded.
Additionally, the war, along with Lebanon's civil war, which preceded Israel's invasion, set the stage for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force to establish Hezbollah later in 1982.
What happened in the shooting, and how was Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime responsible?
Three armed men, Hussein Ghassan Said, Marwan al-Banna, and Nawaf al-Rosan, have since been identified as the attempted assassins. The gunman who shot Argov in the head used a PM-63 machine pistol.
The gunmen belonged to the Abu Nidal Organization, a Palestinian terror group that had split from the PLO in 1974. The terror group's founder, Sabri Khalil al-Banna, also known as Abu Nidal, was politically aligned with the Ba'ath movement, particularly Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who backed the terror group.
The three gunmen drove to the Iraqi embassy in London following the shooting, depositing the weapon within the building. Later, it emerged that the attempted assassination of Argov was ordered by Hussein's intelligence service. The Iraqi leader intended for Israel to invade Lebanon, hoping it would weaken the influence of Hafez al-Assad's administration in Syria. Hussein and Assad were fierce rivals despite originating from the same pan-Arab political movement.
Iraq believed that the IDF's invasion of Lebanon would weaken Assad's position regardless of whether or not he provided direct military support to Palestinians in Lebanon.
Said, a Jordanian, was shot in the head by Argov's bodyguard, but survived despite sustaining serious injuries. Banna was Abu Nidal's cousin, and Rosan was an Iraqi intelligence colonel. They escaped uninjured but were arrested shortly afterward in a London apartment.
Intelligence gathered also indicated that the three gunmen intended to kill the PLO representative in London, Nabil Ramlawi.
All three were convicted by British courts and sentenced to imprisonment ranging from 30 to 35 years.
Argov hospitalized in Hadassah, Jerusalem, for rest of life
Following the incident, Argov was in a coma for three months, after which he regained consciousness and was returned to Israel. He became a permanent patient in Hadassah-University Medical Center's rehabilitation ward in Jerusalem. He was paralyzed for the rest of his life.
For the first three years at Hadassah, Argov was lucid and able to have newspaper headlines read to him for short bursts throughout the day. Witnesses note that he was devastated when he realized the full extent of his medical condition.
He was distressed that the attempted assassination targeting him triggered the war. In a statement he dictated to a friend, eventually printed in Haaretz in 1983, he said that "If those who planned the war had also foreseen the scope [of the operations], they would have spared the lives of hundreds of our best sons."
The war "brought no salvation," Argov said in the statement. "Israel should go to war only when there is no alternative. Our soldiers should never go to war unless it is vital for survival. We are tired of wars. [Israel] wants peace," he added.
After approximately three years, he never fully regained consciousness and eventually became blind.
He died in the hospital in 2003, aged 73 years old.