May, 1977

A group of four Moluccan terrorists took more than 100 students and school employees hostage in an elementary school in Bovendsmille, Holland. After fourteen days of patient negotiations, Dutch Royal Marines performed a successful tactical rescue and captured all four terrorists.

 

 

 

1976

French Foreign Legion troops and the French counterterrorism police unit GIGN executed a tactical assault to free twenty nine French children being held hostage in a school bus at the border of Djibouti and Somalia. One child and five terrorists were killed during the rescue operation.

 

 

 

May, 1974 – Ma’alot Massacre

Three Arab terrorists dressed as Israeli Defense Forces soldiers attacked a school in Ma’alot, Israel. They took hostages and killed twenty one school children along with several adults. Many of the casualties occurred when an elite unit of the Golani Brigade attempted a tactical response to rescue the hostages. This incident resulted in the formation of special tactical units within the Israel National Police. This attack has come to be referred to as the Ma’alot Massacre.