The party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised on Wednesday the gunmen who killed 24 people when they attacked Lod Airport (now Ben-Gurion International Airport) in 1972. Three members of the Japanese Red Army recruited by a Palestinian terrorist group opened fire and threw grenades, killing eight Israelis and 16 foreign tourists. The post on Fatah's official Facebook page on Wednesday came ahead of the anniversary of the attack. "A thousand greetings to the Japanese fighter and comrade Kozo Okamoto, the hero of the Lod airport operation," the post read, accompanied by photos. Munir Jaghob, a Fatah media official, said, "We are proud of all the people who worked for the Palestinian cause." Palestinian Media Watch, an Israel-based NGO, accused Fatah of having a policy of "glorifying terrorists on the date of their attacks."
