Kozo Okamoto, a Japanese leftist who took part in a deadly attack on Lod Airport in Israel in 1972 and spent much of his life in Lebanon, has died in Beirut aged 78. Israel released him in 1985 after 12 years as part of a prisoner exchange with Palestinian resistance groups. During his Lebanese trial, Okamoto described himself as “an Arab resistance fighter”. He made a rare public appearance in May 2022 at a Beirut cemetery containing the graves of Palestinian resistance figures, marking 50 years since the airport attack. Okamoto remained in Lebanon until his death, remembered by supporters across the region as a figure who left his homeland to stand with Palestinians confronting occupation.