Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Terrorist’s Widow Treated in Tel Aviv Hospital

Being the widow of one of the Middle East’s most notorious terrorists isn’t enough to stop Israeli doctors from treating you.

In one of today’s stranger news items, Israel’s Channel 2 is reporting that the wife of Mohammed Oudeh, the mastermind behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, is receiving medical care at Assuta Hospital in Tel Aviv. Channel 2 reporter Ohad Hamo says she’s in a coma, and is being visited by daughters who’ve arrived from Jordan and Ramallah. A third daughter is reportedly on her way from Syria — an unusual situation, to say the least, given relations between the two countries.

The nature of the older woman’s medical condition is unclear, as are the reasons for her arrival in Tel Aviv from Jordan. Assuta cited medical confidentiality in refusing to confirm or deny her presence at the hospital.

Assuming the report is true, the Shmooze can only imagine the political and diplomatic considerations that resulted in Israel’s decision to allow the woman entry and provide her with medical treatment.

Her husband, whose nom de guerre was Abu Daoud, masterminded the hostage-taking of Israel’s delegation at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The attack resulted in the deaths of 11 Israelis.

Abu Daoud died of a kidney ailment last year in Syria. He remained unrepentant, threatening Israel in a final statement: “Today, I cannot fight you any more, but my grandson will and his grandsons, too.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.