Japanese militant Kozo Okamoto who took part in 1972 Tel Aviv attack dies in Lebanon

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praises his support for the Palestinian cause

• 

  The body of Japanese militant Kozo Okamoto is carried through Beirut. All photos: AFP

• 

  Georges Abdallah, right, a former leader of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions, with supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

• 

  A man holds a wreath bearing an image of Japanese militant Kozo Okamoto, also known as “Ahmed al-Yabani” (Ahmed the Japanese) as members and supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), joined by Lebanese and Palestinian participants, attend his funeral procession in Beirut on July 24, 2026. The procession set off from Al-Khashoggi Mosque before burial at the Martyrs’ Cemetery of the Palestinian Revolution. Okamoto, was part of a three-man commando from the Japanese Red Army that killed 26 people, eight Israelis, a Canadian, and 17 Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico on May 30, 1972 at Lod airport -- now known as Ben Gurion -- near Tel Aviv in an attack planned by the PFLP. Okamoto died on July 23, 2026 aged 78, the group said. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)

• 

  His body was carried from Al Khashoggi Mosque to be buried at the Martyrs’ Cemetery of the Palestinian Revolution

• 

  Okamoto took part in a deadly shooting at the airport in Tel Aviv in 1972, as a member of the Japanese Red Army

• 

  Children carry posters of Okamoto during the funeral procession

Kozo Okamoto, a Japanese militant who helped carry out a deadly attack on an Israeli airport on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has died in Beirut, the group said.

The PFLP referred to him as Ahmad Al Yabani, or Ahmad the Japanese, calling him a “comrade” who made “enormous sacrifices that spanned long decades in the struggle for Palestine” after his death, aged 78, in the Lebanese capital on Thursday.

Okamoto participated in a deadly shooting attack on the airport in Tel Aviv in 1972 as a member of the communist Japanese Red Army (JRA) guerrilla group founded the previous year. The attack at Lod Airport, now known as Ben Gurion Airport, killed 26 people.

The complex legacy of Fusako Shigenobu's years in the Middle East

Read More

The JRA largely operated out of Lebanon and was responsible for several high-profile attacks including the hijacking of planes belonging to Japan Airlines and a takeover of the US consulate in Malaysia.

Kozo Okamoto, the only surviving member of the JRA unit that killed 26 people in an attack on Israel's Lod Airport, during his trial before a military tribunal in Israel, July 1972. AFP

Okamoto served 13 years in an Israeli prison for his role in the deadly airport attack, in which 76 people were also injured. He was freed in 1985 in a prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian guerrillas. After moving to Syria and Libya, he was granted asylum in Lebanon for “participating in resistance operations against Israel and being tortured in Israeli prisons”, and converted to Islam. He remained in close contact with members of the PFLP.

Before his death, he was wanted in Japan, where authorities had contacted Interpol to have him arrested. During a trial in Lebanon on charges of forgery related to his illegal entry, Okamoto called himself an “Arab resistance fighter”. He was lauded by the PFLP for his support of the Palestinian cause.

Established in 1967, the PFLP is part of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. It is an offshoot of the Arab Nationalist Movement and was founded after the 1967 war by George Habash, a Palestinian Greek-Orthodox Christian.