Editing Munich massacre (section)

==Attack and hostage taking==
The attackers were reported to be Palestinian terrorists from refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. They were identified as [[Luttif Afif]] ([[code name]] Issa), the leader (three of Issa's brothers were also reportedly members of Black September, with two in Israeli jails), his deputy [[Yusuf Nazzal]] ("Tony"), and junior members [[Afif Ahmed Hamid]] ("Paolo"), [[Khalid Jawad]] ("Salah"), Ahmed Chic Thaa ("Abu Halla"), [[Mohammed Safady]] ("Badran"), [[Adnan Al-Gashey]] ("Denawi"), and Al-Gashey's cousin, [[Jamal Al-Gashey]] ("Samir").<ref name="ODIS1">{{cite book|last1=Reeve|first1=Simon|title=One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation "Wrath of God"|year=2011|publisher=Regnery Publishing|isbn=978-1-62872-141-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTn_DQAAQBAJ&q=khalid+jawad|access-date=1 March 2017}}</ref>

According to the author [[Simon Reeve (British TV presenter)|Simon Reeve]], Afif (the son of a Jewish mother and Christian father), Nazzal, and one of their confidantes had all worked in various capacities in the Olympic Village and had spent a couple of weeks scouting for their potential target. A member of the [[Uruguay at the 1972 Summer Olympics|Uruguay Olympic delegation]], which shared housing with the Israelis, claimed that he found Nazzal inside 31 Connollystraße less than 24 hours before the attack. However, since Nazzal was recognized as a worker in the Village, nothing was thought of it at the time. The other members of the group entered Munich via train and plane in the days leading up to the attack.

On Monday evening, 4 September, the Israeli athletes enjoyed a night out, watching a performance of ''[[Fiddler on the Roof]]'' and dining with the star of the play, Israeli actor [[Shmuel Rodensky]], before returning to the [[Olympiapark, Munich|Olympic Park in Munich]].<ref>Reeve, Klein and Groussard.{{Page needed|date=February 2012}}</ref> On the return trip in the team bus, Lalkin denied his 13-year-old son—who had befriended weightlifter [[Yossef Romano]] and wrestler [[Eliezer Halfin]]—permission to spend the night in their Olympic Village apartment at [[Connollystraße]] 31, a decision that may have saved the boy's life.<ref>Klein, pp. 35–36.</ref>

[[File:Connollystraße 31 - Gebäude.jpg|thumb|right|Front view and entrance of the apartment building Connollystraße 31 in 2012. A memorial plaque is visible to the right of the front door.]]
[[File:München - Connollystraße 31 (3).jpg|thumb|right|Rear view of the apartment building at Connollystraße 31 in 2017]]
The hostages were taken during the second week of the Games. At 4:10&nbsp;am local time on 5 September,<ref name="IA1" /><ref name="FDO1">{{Cite web|title=The Hostage taking and the Police operation|url=https://www.erinnerungsort-fuerstenfeldbruck1972.de/en/police-operation-de|first1=Dominik|last1=Aufleger|first2=Anna|last2=Greithanner|first3=Robert|last3=Wolff|publisher=Fürstenfeldbruck District Office|location=Fürstenfeldbruck|date=2022|access-date=2024-08-15}}</ref> as the athletes slept, eight tracksuit-clad members of the [[Black September Organization|Black September]] faction of the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]], carrying [[duffel bag]]s loaded with [[AKM]] assault rifles, [[TT-33|Tokarev pistols]], and [[Grenade|hand grenades]], scaled a {{convert|2|metre|ft|adj=on|frac=2}} chain-link fence with the assistance of unsuspecting athletes who were also sneaking into the Olympic Village.<ref name="IA1" /> The athletes were originally identified as Americans but were later claimed to be Canadians.<ref>{{citation|author=Kelly, Cathal|title=Munich massacre helped unwittingly by Canadians in 1972 Olympic atrocity|newspaper=The Toronto Star|url=https://www.thestar.com/sports/olympics/article/1169848--kelly-munich-massacre-terrorists-helped-by-canadians-in-1972-olympic-atrocity?bn=1|date=28 April 2012|access-date=5 September 2017|archive-date=23 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623150118/http://www.thestar.com/sports/olympics/article/1169848--kelly-munich-massacre-terrorists-helped-by-canadians-in-1972-olympic-atrocity?bn=1|url-status=dead}}</ref>

They entered the two-story apartment building at [[Connollystraße]] 31, which housed the [[Israel at the 1972 Summer Olympics|Israeli]], [[Hong Kong at the 1972 Summer Olympics|Hong Kong]],<ref name="SCMP1">{{Cite news|title=Memories of Munich rush back for official|url=https://www.scmp.com/article/168560/memories-munich-rush-back-official|first=Nazvi|last=Careem|publisher=South China Morning Post|location=Hong Kong|date=28 July 1996|access-date=2024-08-20|url-access=subscription}}</ref> and [[Uruguay at the 1972 Summer Olympics|Uruguay Olympic delegation]]s, through an unlocked front door.<ref name="FDO1" /> [[Yossef Gutfreund]], a wrestling referee, was awakened by a faint scratching noise at the door of Apartment 1, which housed the Israeli coaches and officials. Investigating the noise, he saw the door begin to open and masked men with guns on the other side. Shouting a warning to his sleeping roommates, he threw his 135&nbsp;kg (300&nbsp;lb) weight against the door in an attempt to stop the intruders from forcing their way in.<ref name="FDO1" /> Gutfreund's actions gave his roommate, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolovsky, enough time to escape through a window.<ref name="FDO1" /> Meanwhile, wrestling coach [[Moshe Weinberg]], known as "Muni", fought the intruders,<ref name="DRK1">{{cite news|access-date=2024-08-22|date=5 September 2017|language=de|location=Köln|publisher=Deutschlandradio|first=Tim|last=Aßmann|title=Olympia-Attentat vor 45 Jahren; Eine Geschichte des Versagens|trans-title=Olympic attack 45 years ago; A story of failure|url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/olympia-attentat-vor-45-jahren-eine-geschichte-des-versagens-100.html}}</ref> who shot him through his cheek and then forced him to help them find more hostages.<ref name="FDO1" /><ref name=Burnton>{{cite web|last=Burnton|first=Simon|title=50 stunning Olympic moments No 26: The terrorist outrage in Munich in 1972|publisher=Guardian News and Media Limited|date=2 May 2012|url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2012/may/02/50-stunning-olympic-moments-munich-72|access-date=27 July 2012|archive-date=10 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910013843/https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2012/may/02/50-stunning-olympic-moments-munich-72|url-status=live}}</ref>

Leading the intruders past Apartment 2, Weinberg lied, telling them that the residents were not Israelis. Instead, he directed them to Apartment 3, where the gunmen corralled six wrestlers and weightlifters as additional hostages. Weinberg might have hoped that the stronger men would have a better chance of fighting off the attackers than those in Apartment 2, but they were all surprised in their sleep.<ref name=Burnton/>

As the athletes from Apartment 3 were marched back to the coaches' apartment, the wounded Weinberg attacked the gunmen again, allowing one of his wrestlers, [[Gad Tsobari]], to escape via the underground parking garage.<ref name=Abrahamson>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-sep-05-sp-munichmain05-story.html|title=Black September|work=Los Angeles Times|date=5 September 2002|access-date=21 June 2018}}</ref> Weinberg knocked one of the intruders unconscious and slashed at another with a fruit knife but failed to draw blood before being shot to death.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cwkrv-yn57MC&q=Shaul+Ladany&pg=PT18|title=Warrior Elite: 31 Heroic Special-Ops Missions from the Raid on Son Tay to the Killing of Osama Bin Laden|author=Nigel Cawthorne |publisher=Ulysses Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-56975-969-1|access-date=24 February 2013}}</ref>

Weightlifter Yossef Romano, a veteran of the 1967 [[Six-Day War]], also attacked and wounded one of the intruders before being shot and later succumbed to his wounds.<ref name="FDO1" /> According to a report by ''[[The New York Times]]'' on 1 December 2015, Romano, after he was shot, was slowly left to bleed to death and, at some point over many hours, was castrated.<ref name=NYT72>{{cite news|last1=Borden|first1=Sam|title=Long-Hidden Details Reveal Cruelty of 1972 Munich Attackers|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/sports/long-hidden-details-reveal-cruelty-of-1972-munich-attackers.html?_r=1|access-date=1 December 2015|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=December 2015|archive-date=2 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151202165707/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/sports/long-hidden-details-reveal-cruelty-of-1972-munich-attackers.html?_r=1|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="DRK2">{{cite news|access-date=2024-08-22|date=13 December 2015|language=de|location=Köln|publisher=Deutschlandradio|first=Jürgen|last=Kalwa|title=Olympia-Attentat von 1972: Ein Fall von besonderer Grausamkeit|trans-title=1972 Olympic attack: A case of particular cruelty|url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/olympia-attentat-von-1972-ein-fall-von-besonderer-100.html}}</ref>

The gunmen were left with nine hostages: in addition to Gutfreund, they had shooting coach [[Kehat Shorr]], track and field coach [[Amitzur Shapira]], fencing master [[Andre Spitzer]], weightlifting judge [[Yakov Springer]], wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and [[Mark Slavin]], and weightlifters [[David Mark Berger|David Berger]] and [[Ze'ev Friedman]]. Berger was an expatriate American with dual citizenship, while Slavin, the youngest of the hostages at 18, had only arrived in Israel from the Soviet Union four months before the Olympic Games began. Gutfreund, physically the largest of the hostages, was bound to a chair (Groussard describes him as being tied up like a mummy); the rest were lined up four apiece on the two beds in Springer and Shapira's room, and bound at the wrists and ankles, and then to each other. Romano's bullet-riddled corpse was left at his bound comrades' feet as a warning. Several of the hostages were beaten during the standoff, with some suffering broken bones as a result.<ref name=NYT72/>

Of the other members of the Israeli team in Apartment 2, [[racewalker]] [[Shaul Ladany]] was abruptly awakened by [[sports shooter]] [[Zelig Shtroch]], who said something like, "Arabs have shot Muni," referring to Moshe Weinberg.<ref name="DRK1" /> Ladany escaped by jumping from the rear second-story balcony. He then ran to the American dormitory, woke up US track coach [[Bill Bowerman]], and informed him of the attack.<ref name=ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/la/shaul-ladany-1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418051109/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/la/shaul-ladany-1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 April 2020|title=Shaul Ladany biodata/stats|publisher=Sports-reference.com|access-date=24 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0KzECrIQDQC&q=Shaul+Ladany&pg=PA161 |title=Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash Between Sport and Politics&nbsp;– With a Complete Review of Jewish Olympic Medalists|author=Paul Taylor|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|year=2004|isbn=978-1-903900-88-8|access-date=24 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LT2q2tSuIO8C&q=Shaul+Ladany&pg=PA131|title=Making Other Plans: A Memoir|author=Tom Mackin|year=2009|publisher=Author House |isbn=978-1-4520-7151-0|access-date=24 February 2013}}</ref> Ladany, a survivor of the [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]], was the first person to spread the alert.<ref name=ref/> The remaining four residents of Apartment 2—shooters [[Henry Hershkowitz]] and Zelig Shtroch, and fencers [[Dan Alon]] and [[Yehuda Weisenstein]]<ref name="DRK1" />—along with [[chef de mission]] Shmuel Lalkin and the two team doctors, were also able to flee the besieged building. The two female members of Israel's Olympic team, sprinter and hurdler [[Esther Roth-Shahamorov|Esther Shahamorov]] and swimmer Shlomit Nir, were housed in a separate part of the Olympic Village.