On September 5, 1972, during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village and took nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage. The terrorists killed two members of the Israeli team and demanded the release of 200 Arab commandos imprisoned in Israel. The situation ended in a shootout at a military airport about 15 miles away as the Arabs were preparing to fly to Cairo with their Israeli hostages. The bloodshed brought the suspension of the Olympic Games, and there was doubt if they would be resumed. Willi Daume, president of the West German Organizing Committee, announced that he would ask the International Olympic Committee to meet the next day to decide whether they should continue. The tragedy had lasting repercussions on an international scale, waking up Western governments to the threat of terrorism, showing the power of live broadcast, and setting the stage for future violence.