Image of a Killer

An 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist calmly faced television cameras here today and said the March II rampage that took the lives of 32 Israeli civilians was a mistake” but he was not sure he regretted it.

By “mistake,” Hossein Ibrahim Mchmoud Fayad, one of the two surviving terrorists of the II who landed on an Israeli beach eight days ago, meant that the bloody mission he helped carry out was a failure. He said the mission was to free five fellow terrorist from an Israeli jail–five whose names he said he did not know. “We were ready to kill everybody, men, women and children and ourselves as well if our demands were not met,” he said. Asked if he felt remorse, he replied, “I don’t know.”

Fayad addressed scores of newsmen and television crews at a press conference at the Beth Sokolow journalists” center here. He was flanked by two white-helmeted Israeli military policemen carrying sub-machineguns and two interpreters who translated his Arabic into Hebrew and English.

LIKE TELLING ABOUT A TEA PARTY

His story added little to the detailed accounts of the tragedy already published. What struck the listeners most was the matter-of-fact way he spoke of the multiple murders he and his companions perpetrated. “He might have been telling about a tea party,” one reporter observed later.

He described the murder of the terrorists’ first victim, 39-year-old Gail Rubin, an American photographer accosted on the beach of Maagen Michael where the gang landed and found themselves lost. “We asked her where we were and then killed her, “Fayad said.” We were in a hurry. We thought it was too dangerous to leave her alive.” Ms. Rubin’s car was too small, “so two of us went to the highway and took over a Mercedes taxi and killed the driver,” he said.

Without emotion, he related the hijacking of two buses and the herding of their passengers into one of them. “Those that did not want to get into the bus were killed,” he said. He confirmed that the terrorists fired indiscriminately at civilians and passing vehicles as the bus raced at 60 mph toward Tel Aviv. He said he wasn’t sure if his shots had killed anyone.

JOINED FATAH IN 1977

Fayad was born in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip and lived for eight years in Rafah where he completed two years of school. His family then moved to Cairo where he completed his elementary and highschool education and attended a teachers seminary for one year.

On June 2, 1977, Fayad joined El Fatah, the terrorist branch of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in Lebanon. He underwent basic training which included instruction in the use of Soviet-made Kalachnikof automatic rifles and other weapons and how to handle explosives.

After volunteering for the deadly mission, he was aiven a refresher course and instructions in small boat handling and house-to-house combat. Those courses were conducted at a base called Kasmiyeh near Damour, a small part in south Lebanon. Instructions for the operation were given by Abu Jihad, El Fatah’s chief of operations.

The terrorists, originally 13 in number, left the harbor at Tyre in south Lebanon on March 8 aboard a mother ship, the name and flag of which Fayad claimed he did not know. Their destination was Tel Aviv. The next day they were dropped at sea on two rubber rafts and the mother ship departed.

The terrorists lost their compass and were at sea for three days until they noticed lights and made their way to shore where they landed Saturday, March II. About 150 meters from the beach, a heavy surf capsized one of the rafts and two of its six occupants were drowned. The body of one of them was subsequently washed ashore south of Haifa. Fayad was asked why he joined El Fatah. He said he did so for family reasons but would not elaborate. Asked if he has changed his mind about El Fatah, he said he did not know.