Two Palestinian terrorists were sentenced today by a military tribunal in Lod to life sentences on 13 charges stemming from their participation in the coastal raid in March, 1978 in which 34 civilians were murdered and 73 injured.
Haled Housein, 22, and Ibrahim Fuad, 19, the only two survivors of the 11-member terrorist group, had been convicted on 10 charges of firing at people, two of placing and detonating explosives and one of being members of a hostile organization. In finding them guilty, the tribunal said they had violated not only the law but also morality in firing at unarmed women and children and that they had infiltrated into Israel not to take hostages but to kill.
The courtroom was packed with relatives of victims of the raid on Israel’s main coastal high way which began when the terrorists landed on a beach near Kibbutz Maagen Michael and encountered on American nature photographer. Goil Rubin of New York. After killing her, the gang hijacked a bus full of passengers and, in a shootout with police north of Tel Aviv, set the bus afire and threw hand grenades at the passengers.
Aharon Alpern, the tribunal president, said the tribunal did not impose the death penalty on the two terrorists because one of them was under 18 wren the attack took place and the age of the other could not be established positively.
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