1973 'Israeli' attack on Libyan flight remembered

• The attack killed nearly all passengers, including prominent figures, highlighting one of the era’s most tragic civilian air disasters.

Latifa Dalal, a Palestinian from Akka born during the Nakba in 1948, shared her harrowing story in an emotional interview with Roya TV.

She recounted the 1973 'Israeli' attack on a Libyan Arab Airlines Boeing 727 over the Sinai Desert, which claimed the lives of her seven-month-old son, Manhal, and her mother.

At the time, Dalal was living in Libya with her husband. Her mother was traveling from Aleppo with baby Manhal to Damascus for temporary care.

The flight, carrying mostly civilian passengers including Egyptian newlyweds and notable figures like federal media minister Saleh Masoud Abu Yasir and beloved TV host Salwa Hegazy, was suddenly intercepted by four 'Israeli' Phantom jets.

The jets forced the plane toward Sinai and bombed it with napalm. Only two passengers survived: a Jordanian man from the Khalili family and the Libyan co-pilot.

A Mother’s Unbearable Loss

Dalal recalled the moment she sensed the tragedy: “Just minutes before the plane fell, I felt a spark in my heart. I looked at the clock, it was 6:53, and I knew it was the moment of impact.” Her husband initially told her the plane had been hijacked, but she immediately realized the truth: “My son and my mother were in the hands of my enemy. There was no way they would survive.”

Her son was buried in Benghazi and her mother in Egypt, leaving Dalal with a profound sense of being torn between them. Reflecting on her grief, she said, “I did not cry for Manhal in weakness. I wrote poems of steadfastness, not lament. Now I understand the endurance of Palestinian mothers because I lived their pain.”

Dalal’s account provides a deeply personal perspective on one of the most infamous civilian air attacks of the 1970s, illustrating the human cost of aggression and the lasting scars left on families.