16 Facts About Khalil al-Wazir

Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir was a Palestinian leader and co-founder of the nationalist party Fatah.

Nonetheless, the Israeli military prevailed and Khalil al-Wazir was exiled from Lebanon with the rest of the Fatah leadership.

Khalil al-Wazir settled in Amman for a two-year period and was then exiled to Tunis in 1986.

Khalil al-Wazir was born in 1935 to Muslim parents in the city of Ramla, Palestine, then under British Mandatory rule.

In 1954 he came into contact with Yasser Arafat in Gaza; Khalil al-Wazir would become Arafat's right-hand man later in his life.

Khalil al-Wazir studied architectural engineering at the University of Alexandria, but he did not graduate.

Khalil al-Wazir continued to teach after moving to Kuwait in 1959.

Khalil al-Wazir toured other East Asian countries, establishing relations with North Korea and the Viet Cong.

Khalil al-Wazir was put in charge of guerrilla warfare operations in both the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel proper.

Khalil al-Wazir allegedly planned the Savoy Hotel attack in 1975, in which eight Fatah militants raided and took civilian hostages in the Savoy hotel in Tel Aviv, killing eight of them, as well as three Israeli soldiers.

When Israel besieged Beirut in 1982, Khalil al-Wazir, disagreed with the PLO's leftist members and Salah Khalaf; he proposed that the PLO pull out of Beirut.

Dissatisfied at the decisive defeat of Palestinian forces in Lebanon during the 1982 Lebanon War, Khalil al-Wazir concentrated on establishing a solid Fatah base in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Khalil al-Wazir provided the uprising with financial backing and logistical support, thus becoming its "brain in exile".

Israel accused Khalil al-Wazir of escalating the violence of the Intifada, which was ongoing at the time of his assassination.

Khalil al-Wazir then took a phone call from an aide who informed him he had a seat reserved on a flight to Baghdad at a little over 3:00 AM.

Khalil al-Wazir was shot at close range, reportedly 70 times, in the presence of his wife Intissar and his son Nidal, above whose bed a commando then fired a burst of automatic fire as a warning.