Just as Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was proudly telling Jewish students here that Israel was a safer place since the expulsion last month of 415 Moslem fundamentalists, the country was plagued by three new, attacks against Israelis.
Separate incidents left a 25-year-old agent of the Shin Bet security service dead in an upscale neighborhood of Jerusalem and seriously injured a Jewish carpenter at a construction site in Holon, south of Tel Aviv.
There was also an explosion aboard a passenger bus near Petach Tikvah, but it caused only slight damage and no injuries.
The attacks became known Sunday just as Rabin was telling the 22nd Gathering and Congress of the World Union of Jewish Students that the expulsion of the 415 Palestinians from the administered territories had dealt a major blow to the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement and had led to a drop in terrorist assaults.
The Shin Bet officer, Haim Nahmani, was found dead Sunday afternoon in the entrance of an apartment building on Hatibonim Street, in the Rehavia neighborhood of western Jerusalem.
He apparently had been struck with a heavy object and stabbed all over his body.
A police communique said only that Nahmani was killed “during an operational activity.”
But news reports here said he had been killed while waiting for the arrival of an Arab informant.
Earlier, one or two Arab workers brutally attacked Danny Partosh, 26, at a building site in Holon. The injured carpenter was said to be out of danger following surgery.
Police detained 10 people and were seeking a 30-year-old Palestinian from Hebron under suspicion of taking part in the assault.
RIOTS ERUPT IN GAZA STRIP
The explosion aboard the passenger bus occurred near Petach Tikvah as it was making its way from Haifa to Jerusalem.
Eyewitnesses recalled that an unknown young man had lifted luggage aboard the bus when it stopped in Netanya but did not himself board the vehicle.
The three incidents were the first major wave of terror since the killing of five Israeli servicemen in separate incidents last month. Those attacks led to the expulsion of the 415 Palestinians, many of whom were members of the group claiming responsibility for the attacks.
Meanwhile, riots erupted in the turbulent Gaza Strip shortly after Israel lifted a curfew and allowed 35,000 day laborers to cross into Israel proper.
A resident of Rafah, at the southern end of the territory, was killed, apparently by Israeli army fire, and at least 10 others wounded in demonstrations there. One woman reportedly was hit by a bullet to the chest and suffered serious wounds.
Israeli soldiers opened fire after their vehicle was ambushed by rock-throwing youths.
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.
