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Enter the PLO
On July 23 rd 1968, in the middle of the "summer of love," three PFLP guerillas took control of an EL AL Boeing bound for Tel Aviv from Rome and diverted it to Algiers. The Algerians weren't expecting them, but as they as they were among Israel's strongest denouncers, the hijackers, choice of destination wasn't too surprising. Algiers has since become the place to take the hijacked aircraft, and the Algerian government has developed a great deal of expertise in dealing with them. The PFLP now changed tack a little, and started shooting up airliners as they started there take-off run. In Athens and again in Zurich they were only marginally successful, killing one Israeli in each attack. But five Palistinians were captured and held in European jails, and that was to spur their PFLP colleagues to great lengths to get them released.