Yusuf Nazzal

Nazzal is reported to have flown to Libya on the 11th or 12th of August for "intensive training" in preparation for the attack on the Israeli quarters. In the weeks prior to the attack, Nazzal, the leader of the assault, Luttif Afif, and Abu Daoud, carried out reconnaissance of the Olympic Village by pretending to be Brazilian tourists, managing to gain access after Daoud struck up a rapport with a guard stationed at one of the entrances. Daoud claims that on this visit, Nazzal, Afif, and himself were able to get inside 31 Connollystraße after being accompanied by an unsuspecting Israeli female, which resulted in their obtaining crucial information, such as the layout of the building, how many athletes were in each apartment, and where they slept. Simon Reeve states that both Nazzal and Afif were able to gain temporary employment in the Olympic Village, with Nazzal working as a cook. Afif and Nazzal would sit playing chess and observing the comings and goings of athletes in and around 31 Connollystraße in preparation for the attack. Nazzal was found inside 31 Connollystraße apartments at 8:00 am on the day prior to the attack by Uruguayan official Luis Friedman. Reportedly, Nazzal shyly told Friedman in English that someone in the building occasionally gave him fruit; Friedman then gave him all the fruit he could carry.

Nazzal has been portrayed by the actors Djamchid "Jim" Soheili in the 1976 television film 21 Hours at Munich and Merik Tadros in Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich.

Yusuf Nazzal (1937 – 6 September 1972) (code name "Tony") was the second-in-command of eight members of the Palestinian Black September Organisation that invaded 31 Connollystraße in the Munich Olympic Village on 5 September 1972, and took nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage after two members, weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg, were killed in the initial takeover. Television images broadcast during the hostage crisis show Nazzal frequently, seemingly always smoking, wearing sunglasses, an open-neck red shirt, and a cowboy hat, which led him to be identified as the 'Cowboy'. According to author Serge Groussard, Nazzal "liked to be called Guevara".

According to Abu Daoud, Nazzal was a young officer in the Al-'Asifah, the armed wing of Fatah, who towards the end of 1971 had been based in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, where he was involved in conducting operations across the border in Israel. Nazzal had fought in Amman in 1970 after Jordan's expulsion of the PLO, and in the battles of Jerash and Ajlun in July 1971. Described by Daoud as a "very good fighter", Nazzal had purportedly begged Abu Iyad to "organize something, somewhere" in retaliation against Israel after deadly Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon. Nazzal then moved to West Germany to study. According to Simon Reeve, Nazzal worked for a Munich oil company.