 In an announcement in Beirut after the attack, the Iraqi-backed Arab Liberation Front, a radical guerrilla group within the PLO, claimed responsibility for the attack and stated that the action was carried out with the aim of releasing 50 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.Following the attack, Israel carried out Operation High Voltage () on April 17, 1980 in which seaborne Israeli commandos raided and destroyed the Ras el-Sheikh Palestinian guerrilla base in southern Lebanon (20 kilometers north of Tyre and about 40 kilometers north of the Israeli border).An IDF spokesman stated that the base was used as a supply center and staging base for terror raids in Israel.