Arab Terrorist Activity Increasing

A 24-year-old Acre resident has been arrested on suspicion of contacts with Iraqi intelligence, it was announced today. The arrest is the latest development in a disturbing rise in Arab terrorist activity that has been noted over recent months. Israeli Television, in a broadcast tonight, said some 1600 persons had been arrested during the past year on charges of terrorist activity, 300 more than the year before.

Almost all of them were residents of the administered areas, and Brig Gen. Ben-Eliezer, commander of Judaea and Samaria, was quoted by television as saying that there is “increased readiness” among West Bank youth to join the sabotage organizations. Some 20 young Israeli Arabs were among those arrested during the past year. None of them was charged with actually participating in sabotage acts. Their suspected crime was generally aiding and abetting terrorists.

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces sealed off two houses in Abu Dis village near Jerusalem today after evacuating the occupants. One of the houses was described as the hiding place of the leader of a terrorist cell. The other belonged to Lewfik Souleiman el-Khatib, a member of a terrorist gang who has confessed to planting a bomb on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem last Oct. 1 and last Nov. 20 on another Jerusalem street. Arms and explosives were found in both houses.

In a related development, a military tribunal in Loc imposed a 15 year prison sentence today on Nabil Daana, 19, a member of El Fatah. Daana was arrested Sept. 1 when a bomb he was about to plant on a street in the Old City leading to the Western Wall, exploded prematurely injuring his hands.