Did Wikipedia remove the word "hostage" from the Savoy Hotel attack article?

Yes. "hostage" appeared 3 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 10. We saved the article's opening paragraph at 5 moments between 2010 and 2025, and the counts come from those saved copies.

When did the Savoy Hotel attack article stop using the word "hostage"?

The word appeared 3 times in the opening at its peak in 2010. It is absent from today's opening, the part search engines quote and AI systems train on, checked against the live article on 2026-08-01.

How can I verify what Wikipedia's Savoy Hotel attack article used to say?

Each snapshot on this page links the Wikipedia revision it came from, so you can open their own history and compare. We also keep our own copy of the text, which stays readable if the article changes again.

Browse all 3,689 case files

Case file

Savoy Hotel attack

The Savoy Hotel attack was a 1975 PLO assault on a Tel Aviv hotel in which guests were taken hostage and threatened with execution. In 2010 the opening said "the guests were taken hostage," that Palestinians threatened to execute them if 20 prisoners were not released within four hours, and that "five hostages were freed, while eight were killed." Today the opening is a single sentence naming it a terrorist attack by the PLO, with no mention of the hostages, the threat, or the death toll, and hostage appears zero times in the opening though it survives ten times in the article. A reader today learns the attack happened and who carried it out, and not that guests were held hostage, threatened with execution, or that eight of them were killed.

Read line by line and written up by hand.

Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “hostage” appeared 3 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 10.

We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2010 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. ¹ tap a number or a side note to jump between them

The opening as it read in 2010

Abu Jihad Strength ? 8 fighters Casualties and losses 3 soldiers killed 8 civilians killed 7 killed 1 captured 32°04′21″N 34°45′57″E  /  32.07250°N 34.76583°E  / 32.07250; 34.76583 The Savoy Hotel Attack was a terrorist attack by members of the Palestine Liberation Organization against the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv , Israel , on March 4–5, 1975. At 11:00 PM on the night of March 4, 1975, eight Palestinians in two teams landed by boat on the Tel Aviv beach. Shooting and throwing grenades , they took over the Savoy Hotel near the center of the city. The guests were taken hostage. The Palestinians threatened that if Israel did not release 20 Palestinian prisoners within four hours the hostages would be executed. Early the next morning, the Israeli counter-terrorism unit Sayeret Matkal stormed the hotel, killing seven of the perpetrators and capturing one. Five hostages were freed, while eight were killed. Three soldiers, including former Sayeret Matkal commander Uzi Yairi , were also killed. A few hours later the ship that had transported the militants was captured and its crew taken prisoner. The Palestinian operation was planned by Abu Jihad in retaliation for a surgical raid that the Sayeret Matkal conducted in Beirut , Lebanon in April, 1973 ( Operation Spring of Youth ), where they killed three top PLO leaders. Members of the Savoy cell included Musa Juma al-Tallka, the sole survivor, Muhammad Mashala, Hader Muhammad, Ziad Talk al-Zrir, Musa Awad, Muhammed al-Masri, Abu al-Lel, and Ahmed Hamid, who were all killed by the Israeli troops. Initial Palestinian planning had called for an attack against the Israeli tourist city of Nahariya , yet the team was apparently unable to locate the city on the night of the attempt, two months earlier. The operation's objectives were then changed to the Manshiya Neighborhood Youth Club and the Tel Aviv Opera Building. The contingency plan in case the original targets could not be located was to select any nearby populated buildings as targets. This resulted in the Savoy Hotel raid, as it was the only illuminated building on the street.¹

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 370633763.

Today

“hostage” appeared 3 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 10. Read the current article and compare.

Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
	2010	2015	2020	Oct '23	2025
hostage	3	0	0	0	0
terror	2	1	2	2	2
militant	1	0	0	0	0
jihad	2	0	0	0	0

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2015 and 2025.

Then

terrorist attack by members of the palestine liberation organization against the savoy hotel in tel aviv

Now

terrorist attack by the palestine liberation organization against the savoy hotel in tel aviv

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

← back to the drift report