Kozo Okamoto, a member of the Japanese Red Army who took part in the 1972 machine-gun attack on Tel Aviv's Lod Airport, died on July 23, 2026, in Beirut, Lebanon. He was 78.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — a secular Palestinian political and militant group — announced his death. A senior PFLP member confirmed it in a telephone interview, according to Nippon.com. Okamoto died around noon local time on Thursday, July 23, after a period of poor health related to old age. He died in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where he had lived for decades, per The New Arab.

Okamoto's death closes a chapter on one of the most striking examples of transnational militant cooperation in the early 1970s. On May 30, 1972, three Japanese Red Army operatives opened fire in the arrivals hall of Tel Aviv's airport (then known as Lod Airport). The attack killed more than two dozen people and wounded dozens more, most of them Puerto Rican Christian pilgrims. Okamoto was the only one of the three attackers to survive. He was captured, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel. He served 12 years before being released in 1985 as part of a prisoner exchange — a deal in which a government frees prisoners in return for something it wants, in this case the release of Israeli soldiers held by Palestinian groups.

After his release, Okamoto settled in Lebanon. The PFLP, which had coordinated the 1972 operation alongside the Japanese Red Army, provided refuge. He lived in Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Lebanese and Palestinian militant organizations, for the rest of his life. Japan sought his extradition — the formal process of one country requesting that another hand over a criminal suspect or convict — for years, but Lebanon declined.

The Japanese Red Army was a small leftist militant group founded in 1971. It operated primarily through partnerships with Palestinian factions rather than acting alone. The Lod Airport attack was its deadliest operation and was carried out in coordination with the PFLP, a secular Marxist-Leninist organization founded by George Habash. The PFLP's announcement of Okamoto's death reflects the depth of that organizational relationship, which persisted long after the Japanese Red Army effectively ceased operational activity.

Okamoto's decades-long residence in Lebanon also illustrates the enduring infrastructure of sanctuary that Palestinian factions maintained in the country, particularly in Beirut's southern suburbs. That infrastructure sheltered foreign militants from multiple jurisdictions across decades, even as the geopolitical landscape shifted around it.

The broader context here is what Okamoto's trajectory reveals about how militant networks survive over time. The Japanese Red Army never numbered more than a few dozen core members, yet its most consequential operation required only three operatives and a partner organization with local logistics on the ground. The model showed that small organizations could leverage alliances with larger, territorially embedded groups to carry out attacks far beyond their own reach. Think of it as a franchise arrangement: a small group supplies the operatives while a local partner with deeper roots provides the planning support, safe houses, and knowledge of the terrain.

The fact that the PFLP announced Okamoto's death, rather than Japanese authorities or Lebanese officials, reflects the organizational identity that defined his final four decades. He entered the PFLP's orbit through the 1972 operation and never left it. His death in the same Beirut neighborhood where he had lived since the mid-1980s marks the end of a life spent entirely within the framework of that alliance — from the attack itself through imprisonment, release, exile, and eventual death.

No details have been reported regarding funeral arrangements or whether Japanese officials have made any renewed request for the repatriation of his remains. The PFLP's announcement did not specify further circumstances beyond attributing his death to age-related poor health.