Sylvia Rafael: The Life and Death of a Mossad Spy is the story of a young, dedicated Mossad agent as told by Moti Kfir, the man who trained her, and Ram Oren, a journalist and author. Drawing on extensive research and interviews, they tell the story of Rafael's rise to prominence within the Mossad and her intelligence work trying to locate Ali Hassan Salameh--the leader of Palestine's Black September organization and the mastermind behind the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Her team's misidentification of their mark would eventually lead to her arrest and imprisonment for murder and espionage.

The following excerpt is printed here with the permission of the University Press of Kentucky.

On Sept. 6, 1972, at 4:30 a.m., after collecting the weapons and the ammunition, the eight terrorists jumped over the fence surrounding the village, broke into the Israelis’ quarters, and after killing two of the athletes, took the nine remaining ones hostage.