Security forces have detained some 50 West Bank Arabs in the past few weeks on suspicion of membership in George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, it was disclosed today. Many of the detainees, including a significant number of academicians and intellectuals, have records of previous arrests for membership in the Commune El Arab, the predecessor of the PFLP. The PFLP claimed credit for the June 27 hijacking of the Air France jet whose hostages were rescued by the Israeli army from Entebbe Airport in Uganda a week ago.
It was also disclosed today that two terrorist gangs have been apprehended in the Samaria district of the West Bank where arms caches were found. One of the groups is believed responsible for grenade throwing in Nabjus last April and for attacking a bus carrying Arab workers from the administered territories to jobs in Israel.
Meanwhile, Israeli circles are predicting new activity on the part of the Japanese “Red Army” group whose members have been training at El Fatah camps in Syria and Lebanon. Kozo Okamoto, the sole survivor of the three “kamikaze” terrorists responsible for the 1972 Lod Airport massacre was a member of the group and is presently serving a life sentence. Another member of the group believed to be training at a Fatah base is Posako Shiganovo, the 30-year-old widow of the terrorist Sayoshi Okadore, who was slain at Lod Airport. She is reportedly wanted in Japan for anarchist activities.
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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.
