An 80-year-old Palestinian academic and prominent activist, whose participation in one of the earliest recorded female-led plane hijacking attempts made her a notable figure in the Palestinian national movement, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon’s official state news agency has confirmed. The strike that claimed Maha Abu Khalil’s life occurred shortly before midnight on April 17, just hours ahead of the implementation of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed groups. The deadly attack also left at least 13 other people dead, 35 more injured, and 15 individuals still unaccounted for as of the latest updates.
Abu Khalil was a founding member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a leftist political and military movement established in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1969, she made international headlines after being arrested in Athens, Greece, while attempting to hijack an El Al commercial flight carrying 29 passengers. Contemporary reporting from The New York Times published that December documents that 22-year-old Abu Khalil, who was working as a schoolteacher at the time, alongside two co-defendants, pleaded not guilty to charges of unlawful possession of explosives, but openly acknowledged their plan to seize the aircraft. The hijacking attempt was designed to pressure global powers into securing the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Though the attempt failed, Abu Khalil was ultimately released from Greek custody in a prisoner exchange months after her arrest.
Following her release, Abu Khalil built a decades-long career as an academic, community organizer and social worker based in Lebanon, according to statements from the PFLP. In an official memorial statement, the group honored Abu Khalil, framing her death as a profound loss to a movement centered on “feminism, patriotism, and humanitarianism.” “Maha Abu Khalil will remain present in the national memory and in the record of women fighters who gave their lives for freedom, justice, and human dignity,” the statement read.
Founded by George Habash in 1967, the PFLP was established as a explicitly Marxist-Leninist political movement modeled after successful anti-imperialist struggles led by figures such as Che Guevara in Latin America and the National Liberation Front in Vietnam. While the group’s regional prominence has waned in recent decades, overshadowed by the rise of Islamist organizations including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, it remains active in the blockaded Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with its armed wing continuing to carry out periodic targeted attacks against Israeli military personnel.
Even after the formal ceasefire agreement went into force last Friday, Israel has continued systematic demolition of civilian residential and infrastructure across southern Lebanon, according to a new investigation published by Israeli independent newspaper Haaretz. The targeted destruction is concentrated south of the so-called “yellow line,” a demarcation drawn by Israel approximately 20 kilometers south of the Litani River. Under the terms of the current ceasefire agreement, Israeli military forces are prohibited from crossing this boundary.
Unnamed military and political sources told Haaretz that a core goal of the ongoing demolition campaign is to create a permanent buffer zone by preventing Lebanese civilian residents from returning to their homes in border areas adjacent to Israel. The report also added that the Israeli military is using advanced digital tools, including purpose-built statistical tracking systems, to systematically map and measure the scale of destruction across every sector of southern Lebanon.