Officials assembling the details of the attack this morning on Kibbutz Shamir reported today that it had been determined that four terrorists had been involved and that all four had been killed in the foray. Initially it had been reported that the attack had been staged by three terrorists.
Two of the terrorists were killed almost instantly by Uzi Tsur, a paratrooper officer who was a member of the kibbutz. The other two then withdrew to the kibbutz bee-house, and killed three women, two of them members of the kibbutz and the third a 22-year-old volunteer from New Zealand. The women victims were Edna Mor, 30 mother of one child, and Shoshana Galili, 60, a grandmother, who were in the apiary where the terrorists shot them. Another member of the kibbutz, Rami Ben-Zeev, was hit but not badly wounded.
The terrorists entered the kibbutz, at the foot of the Golan Heights, about 8:30 a.m. (local time) when they were spotted by two unarmed kibbutz members, who tried to withdraw unobtrusively. They were spotted, fired on and one was injured. Kibbutz members, who rushed to the scene after hearing the initial shots, killed three of the terrorists. The fourth died when explosives he was carrying apparently blew up. Army units also rushed to the scene.
ASSIGNED FIVE TARGETS FOR INCURSION
Gen. Mordechai Gur, Chief of Staff, said the terrorists had entered Israel from Lebanon intent on capturing hostages. They were dressed as “hippies,” with long hair, ribbons on their foreheads and wearing civilian clothes. From documents on their bodies, according to Gur, they had been assigned five targets including Shamir. It was unclear whether they planned to attack all five targets. The terrorists had large quantities of explosives, sub-machine guns, hand grenades and ammunition. In Damascus, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command led by Ahmed Jibril, the group responsible for the Kiryat Shemona massacre, took credit for the attack.
Information Minister Aharon Yariv said in a radio interview that the Shamir tragedy was an expression of the resolutions adopted earlier this week at the Palestinian National Council in Cairo. He said the timing was not accidental and he assumed that the terrorists wanted to carry out the raid as close as possible to President Nixon’s Sunday visit. “It is possible that similar attempts will be carried out in the next few days,” Yariv said.
NEED FOR ALERTNESS STRESSED
Yariv also declared that the attack “brings home to us the importance of alertness, preparedness, and readiness for swift action, particularly in the border settlements.” He said that while “the swift and vigorous action of the kibbutz members and security forces in this instance could not have prevented the murders” of the three women, “it led to the killing of the terrorists, thus preventing them from carrying out more murders of defenseless and innocent people.” He said the outcome of the attack was “also a lesson to the terrorists that anyone who embarks on a murder mission of this kind must bear in mind that he will not come back alive.” Kibbutzim in the Shamir area remained in a high state of alert in case of further terrorist attacks.
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