Anniversary: Japanese men kill 26 in Israel's Lod Airport Massacre

The shooting took place when three Japanese men in business suits disembarked at Lod Airport (known today as Ben-Gurion Airport) and took machine guns and grenades from their luggage, opening fire throughout the airport.

The incident was carried out in cooperation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Two of the shooters died during the incident but one, Kozo Okamoto, survived and was taken into custody.

Okamoto was given a life sentence. But 13 years later, he was released in a prisoner exchange with the Palestinians in what was later known as the Jibril Agreement.

He later moved to Lebanon and was given refugee status due to participating in "resistance operations against Israel."

Now 73 years old, Okamoto is reported to still be living in Lebanon to this day.

The incident is perhaps most widely remembered outside of Israel in Puerto Rico, where the vast majority of casualties were from.

Since 2006, Puerto Rico has observed Lod Airport Massacre Remembrance Day every May 30.

The dead consisted of 17 Puerto Rican Christian pilgrims, a Canadian and eight Israelis, including Prof. Aharon Katzir, the head of Israel’s National Academy of Sciences and brother of Ephraim Katzir, who became president of Israel the following year.