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JewishHistoryעברית

Coastal Road massacre

Date
11 March 1978Hebrew date: 2nd of Adar II, 5738
Location
Coastal Road, from Ma'agan Michael to Glilot junctionIsrael
Then part of
State of Israel
Perpetrators
  • Fatah (Terror organization)
Killed (estimate)
35 – 38[1]Israeli civilians killed, including 13 children in both tallies; 71 wounded in both. The IDF and Defense Establishment Archives give 38 killed. The Jewish Virtual Library's Operation Litani article gives 35 killed.
Country

0.0014% – 0.0015% of the Jewish population of State of Israel (c. 1970)[22]

Worldwide

0.00027% – 0.00029% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1980)[3]

Category
Terror attack, Massacre
Confidence
DisputedThe IDF and Defense Establishment Archives give 38 civilians killed, including 13 children. The Jewish Virtual Library gives 35 civilians killed, including 13 children. Both give 71 wounded and date the attack 11 March 1978.

Summary

On 11 March 1978 eleven PLO-Fatah gunmen landed from rubber boats at the Ma'agan Michael beach, hijacked buses on the Coastal Road, and were stopped by Israeli security forces near Glilot junction, close to Tel Aviv. The attackers blew up a bus. The IDF archives record 38 Israeli civilians killed, including 13 children, and 71 wounded. The Jewish Virtual Library, describing the same attack as the prelude to Operation Litani, gives 35 civilians killed, including 13 children, and 71 wounded. JVL names Dalal al-Mughrabi as the leader of the squad.

Sources

  1. The Coastal road Massacre. IDF and Defense Establishment Archives (1978)
  2. Operation Litani. Jewish Virtual Library

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 13,034,000[3]c. 1980DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1980 in the 2024 Year Book chapter (original AJYB figure that year was 14,527,100).
  • State of Israel: 2,581,000 – 2,582,000[22]c. 1970DellaPergola's revised core estimate for Israel in 1970 is 2,581,000 (AJYB 2024 country comparison table). CBS yearbook tables commonly round end-1970 Jews to 2,582,000.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
  22. Population of Israel/Palestine by Religion (1553–Present). Jewish Virtual Library (citing CBS, British Mandate publications, Bachi and others)
  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
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  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
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  47. Belgium. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
  60. Leon Shapiro, World Jewish Population. American Jewish Year Book 1981 (estimates for 1979), via Berman Jewish DataBank (1981)
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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