John Lyons | November 29, 2008
THE bodies of five Israeli hostages seized by Islamic militants were recovered early today from a Jewish centre in Mumbai after it was stormed by Indian commandos.
"Five bodies of hostages have been found. They are Israeli nationals,'' said Eli Belotsercovsky, deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in New Delhi.
The Press Trust of India quoted Indian national security guard chief J.K. Dutt as saying the militant gunman had killed the hostages during the commando assault on the building.
"We had taken over the second floor of the house when a grenade was launched from above. Three hostages were killed by terrorists,'' Dutt said.
As the armed unit moved upstairs, the militants killed another two hostages on the fourth floor, he added.
The death of the hostages realises Israel's worst fears and is a savage evocation of the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, when Palestinian terrorists massacred 11 Israeli athletes.
In Munich, Israel's offer to deploy a counter-terrorism squad was rebuffed by the Germans, who had no such squad of their own to deploy.
Israel is believed to have considered sending in its own team of commandos to rescue a group of Israeli citizens trapped inside the Jewish centre in Mumbai.
Agence France-Presse reported that Israeli forces were believed to be involved in the rescue attempt on Nariman House, which houses the centre.
It quoted a diplomatic source as saying: "The Israelis are the ones who are running the show.''
However this was denied by the Indians, who said they had declined Tel Aviv's offer of troops, and by Israeli ambassador to India Mark Sofer.
Crowds celebrated the apparent end of a siege early today, even as police warned that final checks were still being made to ensure the site had been secured.
Hundreds of people flooded into the streets surrounding the centre, cheering and applauding commando units who emerged from the building with their assault rifles raised.
A military spokesman with a loud hailer appealed for the crowds to move back, saying the operation was not "fully over''.
Mumbai police chief Hasan Gafoor said security personnel were still moving through the building "floor-by-floor, checking that everything is all right''.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli military officials were critical of the Indian security forces, saying they had stormed the area prematurely.
The paper quoted Israeli officials as saying the Indian counter-terrorist forces were well-trained "but failed to gather sufficient intelligence before engaging the terrorists''.
"In hostage situations, the first thing the forces are supposed to do is assemble at the scene and begin collecting intelligence,'' a former senior official of Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service, was quoted as saying.
"In this case, it appears the forces showed up at the scene and immediately began exchanging fire with the terrorists instead of first taking control of the area,'' he said.
The paper reported that Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak had expressed concern over the fate of the Israelis caught up in the Mumbai attacks.
Mr Barak is no stranger to difficult operations - in the 1970s he dressed up as a woman as part of an Israeli hit squad that went into Lebanon pursuing elements of the Fatah military wing. Mr Barak and his team made it into Beirut and killed six of the leaders of Fatah.
In 1972, a Palestinian terrorist group calling itself Black September broke into the athletes' village at the Olympics and took 11 Israeli athletes hostage.
After refusing Israel's request for its anti-terrorism team to intervene, the German authorities attempted to simultaneously kill all five hostage-takers in the Olympic Village.
But the operation went wrong when the hostage-takers detonated a grenade and killed themselves and the athletes.
One Israeli source said yesterday: "Whenever there is a hostage-taking operation, Israelis have a very bitter memory.
"In 1972, we asked the Germans to be able to send our team to rescue. The Germans refused. They said they would storm.
"The outcome was a massacre. Every time there is going to be a hostage-taking story, that is the first memory that comes to mind.''
With 1972's massacre fresh in the national consciousness, Israelis were more interventionist when 100 people, mainly Israelis or Jews, were taken hostage aboard a plane at Entebbe airport, Uganda, in July 1976.
Israel did not ask permission before intervening in that case.
It sent in about 200 commandos who overpowered the terrorists and rescued the hostages.
Former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin said later: "This operation will certainly be inscribed in the annals of military history, in legend and in national tradition.''
But the Israeli source said the Mumbai case was different _ that Israel and India enjoyed a close relationship at a trade and diplomatic level, "realistically no country is going to allow anyone to do this kind of job''.
India has bought an estimated $US5billion worth of defence equipment from Israel in the past six years.
The Jerusalem Post reported that under a defence agreement due to be signed soon, the Israeli Defence Forces will send commandos to India to provide training in counter-terrorism, urban warfare and guerilla tactics.
With agencies