On This Day: Palestinian terrorists attempt assassinating Israeli ambassador, prompting Lebanon War

On June 3, 1982, Palestinian terrorists targeted Shlomo Argov, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, shooting him as he left an event in London. This assassination attempt became the pretext for Israel's invasion of Lebanon just days later, initiating the First Lebanon War.

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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.

Then-defense minister Ariel Sharon stated the invasion was a direct response to the attack. Argov, appointed ambassador in 1979, was shot in the head with a PM-63 machine pistol. The assailants, identified as Hussein Ghassan Said, Marwan al-Banna, and Nawaf al-Rosan, belonged to the Abu Nidal Organization, a group aligned with Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The gunmen sought refuge at the Iraqi embassy after the attack, and intelligence later revealed Hussein's direct involvement. He aimed to weaken Syrian influence in Lebanon by provoking an Israeli invasion.

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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.

The war led to the expulsion of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon and an 18-year Israeli military occupation of southern Lebanon. The conflict resulted in 657 Israeli soldiers killed between 1982 and 1985, with an additional 256 fatalities during the occupation until 2000. The war, alongside Lebanon's civil war, also created the conditions for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force to establish Hezbollah in 1982.

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The gunmen belonged to the Abu Nidal Organization, a Palestinian terror group that had split from the PLO in 1974.