leadership belonging to different parties aiming to leave the Palestinian resistance broken and leaderless. The killing and persecution of Palestinian leadership had a significant impact on Palestinians' capacity to resist the Israeli occupation and colonization practices. The killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics was the catalyst that set off a series of targeted killings that became Israel’s signature policy.55 During the 1980s, Israel planned the targeted killings of two important Palestinian leaders. In 1982, PLO-leader Yasser Arafat managed to avoid a series of Israeli attacks against his life during the PLO withdrawal from Beirut.56 However, Israel did manage to kill Arafat’s second in command, Abu Jihad, using a hit squad in Tunisia in 1988.57 At the time Israel saw Abu Jihad as one of the key figures that strengthened the cohesion of the PLO and one of the reasons behind the success of the First Intifada.58 During the First Intifada, between 1988 and 1992, it is estimated that undercover Israeli special forces killed at least 70 Palestinians.59 Although allegations of targeted killings were denied by Israel, an Israeli television report exposed these units and their mission, which was "to apprehend wanted Palestinians from the hard core of the Intifada, those with blood on their hands."60 The evidence collected showed that the majority of those killed were shot by more than one bullet, and often in the upper parts of the body which clearly puts into question the existence of necessity in these killings and it leads to the conclusion that it was possible to arrest many of them during the operation without resorting to killing them. The lack of necessity is further illustrated by the fact that around 50 percent of those killed were unarmed at the time of their killing, and many were shot at close range. Evidence also shows that the soldiers in these units were equipped with live ammunition only, which contravenes the regulations of international law.61 In November 2000, after decades of denial, Israel confirmed the use of targeted killings as an official policy.62 This confirmation was reinforced by 55 Steven R. David, Fatal Choices: Israel’s Policy of Targeted Killing, Mideast Security and Policy Security no. 51, The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, 2002, page 3. Available at: http://www. lloydthomas.org/1-IsraelTimeLine/8-2000/assassinations_david.pdf 56 Ibid., page 4 57 Ibid. 58 Ibid. 59 B’Tselem, Activity of the Undercover Units in the Occupied Territories, May 1992. Available at: http:// www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/199205_undercover_units 60 Ibid. 61 Basic Principles, op. cit., General Provision No 2 62 UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, op. cit. (A/HRC/10/24/Add.6), page 6 23