On January 24, 1964, the Syrian police run by the Ba’ath party raided the home of Damascus businessman Kamel Amin Tha’abet, also known as Eli Cohen, and arrested him on multiple charges of espionage.
Read more: This Day In History: Eli Cohen, Israel's Legendary Spy Is Arrested In Syria
On January 21st, 1882, the blueprint for the “First Aliyah”, the immigration of Diaspora Jews back to the Holy Land, is laid out along with the formation of the BILU group during a meeting at the home of Israel Belkind in Kharkiv, Ukraine. BILU, from the biblical verse “Beit Yaakov Lechu VenilCha” or “House of Jacob Let Us Go” is a group founded by a few dozen students who were responding to the violent nonstop pogroms that swept through Czarist Russia.
Read more: This Day In History: Organization That Sparked The First Aliyah Is Created
On January 20th, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Nazi Gestapo, convenes a conference at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee at which the Nazi leadership would plan out “The Final Solution” for the Jews of Europe. The decisions made at the conference would lead to the industrial extermination of Jewish livelihood in Europe, specifically the Nazi-conquered eastern territories.
Read more: This Day In History: Nazis Plan 'Final Solution' In Berlin Suburb
On January 19th, 2010, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas military commander and founder of its Izz ad-Din al-Qassam military branch of the terrorist organization was drugged and suffocated in his hotel room just a few short hours after his arrival the Emirati city of Dubai. Initially, a Dubai police report blamed his assassination on a “professional criminal gang” that fled before the body was discovered only a day later.
Read more: This Day In History: Hamas Founding Member Assassinated In Dubai
On January 18th, 1991, Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein fires eight Scud missiles at Israel in the early hours of the morning immediately after the US military launched airstrikes on Iraqi sites at the very beginning of the Persian Gulf War. The Scud missiles hit Haifa and Tel Aviv, which Palestinian activists claim to be occupied territory, wounding seven Israeli citizens and damaging millions of dollars in infrastructure.
Read more: This Day In History: Saddam Hussein Begins Firing Scud Missiles At Israel
