As Israeli defense minister, Ariel Sharon ordered the shoot-down of any aircraft confirmed to have been carrying Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a new book claims.

In the book, “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” investigative reporter Ronen Bergman writes that Israel called off one downing after security services realized that Arafat was not aboard a targeted plane.

His look-alike younger brother, Fathi Arafat, was on the flight, which carried 30 wounded Palestinian children — survivors of the infamous Sabra and Shatila massacre a month after the end of the first Lebanon War.

“The military operation had been set in motion by the Mossad,” Bergman wrote in the New York Times, where he revealed excerpts of his book and referred to the Israeli spy agency.

“Taking advantage of lax security at the Athens airport, [the agents] waited for Arafat in the area where private planes were parked,” he added.

The aborted mission was one of many planned assassinations — some even inspired by the film “The Manchurian Candidate.”

According to Bergman, on Oct. 22, 1982, the Mossad received information from two sources inside the PLO that Arafat was due to fly the next day on a private cargo plane from Athens to Cairo.

Two agents were sent to the Athens airport to identify Arafat and confirm he boarded the flight.

Sharon put heavy pressure on Lt. Gen. Rafael Eitan, the Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff — nicknamed “Raful” — to give the go-ahead for the operation.

Air force chief David Ivry told Bergman years later in an interview for his book that “it wasn’t clear to me why Arafat would be flying to Cairo. According to intelligence, he had nothing to look for there at the time.

“And if he was going there, why in that kind of transport plane? Not at all dignified enough for a man of his status. I asked the Mossad to verify that he was the man,” he said.

The agents at the Athens airport reconfirmed the positive ID, adding: “The objective has grown a longer beard to mislead.”

When the cargo plane took off from Athens, Ivry received the order from Raful to down the aircraft.

“You don’t fire without my OK,” Ivry told the pilots of two Israeli F-15 fighter jets. “Clear? Even if there’s a communications problem, if you don’t hear my order — you don’t open fire.”

The F-15s took off, but Ivry continued having doubts.

“Raful, we do not yet have final positive confirmation that it is him,” he said.

With the F-15s en route, Ivry sought additional assurances that Arafat was aboard, as he feared an international outcry if Israel killed the wrong person.

He turned to the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Mossad for a visual identification of the target.

About a half-hour after the Israeli jets took off, the air force commander received an urgent call.

“Doubts have arisen,” he was told after Mossad sources said the Palestinian leader had not been in Greece at all.

Ivry told the pilots, who were tracking the cargo plane, “We’re waiting for more information. Keep eyes on the target and wait.”

Before long, intelligence sources reported that the man on the plane was Fathi Arafat, a pediatrician and founder of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, who was escorting the wounded kids.

“Turn around, you’re coming home,” a relieved Ivry told his pilots.

Israeli jets remained on alert until January 1983 in case Arafat was spotted.

They were scrambled “at least five times to intercept and destroy airliners believed to be carrying Arafat, only to be called back soon after takeoff,” Bergman wrote in the Times.

Sharon had orchestrated the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in response to the PLO’s shelling of northern Israel.

The so-called Operation Peace for Galilee was credited with ending the PLO’s use of Lebanon as a launch pad for attacks against the Jewish state.

But it also resulted in the event that would cement Sharon’s reputation as a despised figure in the Arab world when Lebanese Christian militiamen killed hundreds of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatilla, two Beirut refugee camps overseen by Israel.

After an Israeli probe found Sharon indirectly responsible for the massacres, he was forced to resign in 1983.

He served as prime minister from 2001 to 2006, when he was incapacitated by a stroke, and died eight years later after never emerging from a coma.

Arafat died in 2004 at age 75 after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the West Bank. The official cause death remains a mystery that has given rise to conspiracy theories blaming Israel.