Israel had a new heroine today, border policewoman Daliyah Nahum 22, of Beisan, who captured two terrorists at gunpoint at a Ben Gurion Airport checkpost Friday, thereby averting a disaster that could have exceeded the May, 1971 Lod Airport massacre in death and destruction, She has been recommended for a citation. Ms. Nahum has been with the Border Police only 10 months.
The terrorists, described as Arab youths from Nablus, were carrying high explosives which they intended to plant in the Airport terminal building, timed to go off at noon when crowds of arriving and departing passengers are at their peak. They had managed to pass unsuspected through the outer gates of the airport and were at the last checkpost, only 400 yards from the terminal, when they were arrested by Ms. Nahum whose suspicions were aroused.
A massive investigation in and around Nablus was still underway today. The captured terrorists, identified as Amad Bin-Shat Kamal Ya’Yish, 19, and Louis Ben-Ali Nafa Abdo, 20, are believed to be members of the gang responsible for the explosion of a booby-trapped ice box in Jerusalem’s Zion Square three weeks ago which claimed 14 lives.
News of the events at Israel’s busy international airport was blacked out for several hours to permit security forces to begin their investigation without alerting the terrorists. The details were disclosed today after dozens of other suspects were rounded up and the two Nablus youths continued under interrogation.
DETAILS OF INCIDENT RELEASED
At about 10 a.m., Friday, the two young men left a taxi at a gasoline station near the airport and approached the checkpost where Ms. Nahum and two border policemen were on duty. Ya’Yish, the son of a Nablus travel agent, was a familiar face at the airport and seemed to know his way around. Each man carried a small parcel and when asked for their destination, replied that they were travelling abroad.
According to routine security procedures, they entered the checkpost separately. While Ya’Yish was inside, Ms, Nahum noticed that his companions seemed nervous. She entered the checkpost and observed through a window that he was trying to conceal a nylon-wrapped parcel from which electric wires protruded.
Summoning the young man into the checkpost, she drew her revolver and, to the surprise of her follow police-officer, ordered the two Arabs to raise their hands, Reinforcements were called, and a supper dismantled the parcels which were found to obtain high explosives and a timing device. The terrorists were transferred to a nearby police station for questioning.
Their mission was obviously to cause as much bloodshed as possible. At noon, when their device was to explode, at least five planes were discharging passengers into the terminal while hundreds more waited to board outgoing flights.
Police believe the terrorist gang under investigation was organized only recently with the aid of “summer visitors” from neighboring Arab countries. Visitors, posing as vacationers, are believed to have smuggled in the two mortar shells that caused the Zion Square carnage. While Israel has not abandoned its summer visitors program, it has intensified security at the Jordan River bridges to waylay terrorist emissaries. Security at Ben Gurion Airport has also been intensified since Friday’s incident.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
