A Japanese militant turned Palestinian icon, Kozo Okamoto — known as Ahmad al-Yabani — has died at 78 in Beirut, where he lived in exile for decades. Once a key figure in the PFLP, he helped orchestrate a 1972 Tel Aviv airport massacre that killed 26, earning him a life sentence in Israel before his release in 1985. Though wounded in the attack and later hunted by authorities, he found sanctuary in Lebanon, where he became a symbol of Palestinian resistance. Even after being arrested in Lebanon in 1997 alongside four other Japanese nationals, he was granted asylum — a decision Japan protested but Lebanon upheld. He rarely spoke publicly, but made one notable appearance in 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of the attack. The PFLP hailed him as a martyr whose life was devoted to the Palestinian cause, calling him an “Arab resistance fighter” — a title he proudly embraced.
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