Editing Lillehammer affair (section)

==Background==
Undercover agents had been sent by [[Israel]] as part of [[Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre|series of planned assassinations]] following the 1972 [[Munich massacre]] to assassinate Ali Hassan Salameh, the head of [[Force 17]] and an operative of the [[Black September (group)|Black September Organization]], the [[Palestinian militant]] group responsible. In the summer of 1973, Mossad received a tip that Salameh was working as a waiter in Lillehammer. Author and former [[Mossad]] [[katsa]] ([[case officer]]) [[Victor Ostrovsky]] wrote that Salameh was instrumental in leading Mossad off course by feeding it false information about his whereabouts.<ref>Ostrovsky, 206.</ref> A team of 15 Mossad agents was sent to Lillehammer to assassinate him, where they were joined by Mossad director general [[Zvi Zamir]] and operation commander [[Michael Harari]]. Lillehammer was a relatively small city, and the sudden arrival of more than a dozen strangers attracted attention from residents. The local police began to watch them.<ref name=Haaretz>{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/this-day-in-jewish-history/1.732289|title=When the Mossad's Revenge for the Munich Olympics Went Tragically Wrong|first=David B.|last=Green|date=21 July 2016|access-date=7 October 2017|newspaper=Haaretz}}</ref>

A known Palestinian courier in Lillehammer was identified and followed by Mossad agents to a public swimming pool, where he was seen speaking with Bouchikhi, who had no connection to Palestinian armed groups and whose conversation with the courier was coincidental. Bouchikhi, who resembled Salameh, was found to match the photographs of Salameh. A female Mossad agent then jumped into the pool and got close enough to Bouchikhi to hear him speaking [[French language|French]]. The agents knew that Salameh was multilingual, and concluded that this had to be him. The Mossad team followed Bouchikhi to his home. His residence was placed under constant surveillance by Mossad agents sitting in hired cars.<ref name=Haaretz/><ref name=Reeve>{{cite book |last=Reeve |first=Simon |title=One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation "Wrath of God" |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=9780571231812 |year=2000}}</ref>{{page number|date=July 2020}}