Amin al-Hindi

Who was Amin al-Hindi?

Amin al-Hindi was an intelligence chief of the Palestinian Authority. Hindi was a leader of the Black September movement and was suspected of involvement in the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics that resulted in the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches.

Hindi was born in Gaza in 1940 and was actively involved with Yasir Arafat in the Fatah movement that Arafat created in the 1950s.

In its obituary, The New York Times described Hindi as being "widely suspected of having played an organizing role" in the Black September attack in Munich that led to the deaths of 11 athletes and coaches representing the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 Summer Games who had been taken as hostages at the Olympic village on the morning of September 5, 1972. Israeli security forces carried out a series of killings of individuals believed to have been involved with the massacre. Hindi never acknowledged his involvement in the attack and may have been the last living person involved with plotting the attack following the death of Abu Daoud, the Palestinian terrorist known as the planner, architect and mastermind of the Munich massacre.

Israel permitted him to return from exile in the 1990s following the Oslo Accords. He became a senior official in the Palestinian Authority and served as commander of the Palestinian General Security and Intelligence Service until 2005. In that role he had frequent contact with Israeli military and security forces.