Editing Munich massacre (section)

===Midday extension===
A quarter of an hour before the noon ultimatum expired, an extension of three hours, until 3&nbsp;pm, was negotiated with the terrorists. During the negotiations, the mayor of the Olympic Village, Walther Tröger, along with Willi Daume, Manfred Schreiber, the Munich Police President and the head of security for the Games of the XX Olympiad, Bavarian Minister of the Interior Bruno Merk, and Federal Minister of the Interior and Vice President of the German NOC, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, offered themselves to the terrorists as replacement hostages, but to no avail.<ref name="FFD1" />

The Israeli ambassador to Germany, [[Eliashiv Ben-Horin]], announced around midday that the [[Cabinet of Israel|Israeli cabinet]] had decided not to accept the demands of the hostage-takers.<ref name="FFD1" /> Meir rejected the demands in order not to risk the lives of its citizens abroad for all time.<ref name="FFD1" /> Ambassador Ben Horin underscored Israel's faith in the German authorities' ability to save the hostages and demanded that the sporting competitions be halted until the hostage-taking was concluded.<ref name="FFD1" /><ref name="ISA1" />

At one point during the crisis, the German negotiators demanded direct contact with the hostages to satisfy themselves the Israelis were still alive. Fencing coach Andre Spitzer, who spoke fluent German, and shooting coach Kehat Shorr, the senior member of the Israeli delegation, had a brief conversation with West German officials while standing at the second-floor window of the besieged building, with two kidnappers holding guns on them. When Spitzer attempted to answer a question, he was clubbed with the butt of an [[AK-47]] in full view of international television cameras and pulled away from the window.<ref name="DRK1" />