Gen. Menahem Aviram, commanding officer in the Gaza Strip, described Palestinian terrorists today as callous men who have no regard for even the lives of their fellow Arabs. In 1970, he said, terrorists in the Strip killed 106 Arabs in addition to 16 Jews, and wounded 642 Arabs in addition to 109 Jews. Gen. Aviram announced those figures shortly after an explosion in the Postal Bank office in Gaza this morning killed three Arabs and injured 61 others and severely damaged the structure as well. The officer charged that the bombing was meant to intimidate the 12,000 Strip residents who commute daily to Israel proper for work. He said the bomb had apparently been carefully planned for the early-morning hours on the first day of a new month, when the number of workers in the building is at a maximum because of pay day. Gen. Aviram said the terrorist who had rolled a dynamite-filled tire into the bank had apparently posed as a worker waiting for his check. In the three weeks since the Israeli border force stepped up its crackdown on terrorists, Gen. Aviram said, widespread searches have rooted out only a few dozen terrorists and a limited supply of weapons–less than are believed to be in the area. The Gaza prison, he noted, is filled to capacity with 700 guerrillas, most of them already convicted of terrorism, with another 150 being held in a Sinai jail. The nighttime curfew remains in force through the Strip, the area is heavily patrolled, and the two main exit roads have been sealed off.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
