Israel Confident Egypt Will Do All It Can to Apprehend Ambush Terrorists

Israel expressed confidence Sunday that the Egyptian government will do everything possible to find and punish the terrorists who fatally shot an Israeli woman and wounded three other Israelis in a car ambush outside the Cairo International Trade Fair last Wednesday night. The victims were Israeli Embassy staff members in Cairo.

A statement issued by Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir after Sunday’s Cabinet meeting said he was satisfied with the way the Egyptian authorities are handling the case and the wide coverage it has gotten in the Egyptian media.

Israel’s Minister of Tourism, Avraham Sharir, who was on an official visit to Cairo when the attack occurred, returned home Thursday night with a personal message from President Hosni Mubarak pledging to press the investigation into the attack and track down the assailants.

The plane that flew Sharir from Cairo also carried the body of Etti Tal-Or, 24, who was killed by the ambushers. She was the wife of an Embassy official. She was buried Friday at a cemetery in Beersheba, her home city, where Shamir delivered a eulogy. Her three companions who were flown to Israel immediately after the attack were reported in stable condition after surgery at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer.

Vascular surgery was performed on Savid Zruya, who was struck by bullets in his chest and left thigh. Esther Yefet, 26, was hit in her jaw, left shoulder and wrist. Uri Ziv, 31, suffered wounds in both hands. Both underwent lengthy surgery.

40,000 CAIRENES VISITED ISRAELI PAVILION

The four young Israelis had been staffing the Israel pavilion at the Trade Fair. The pavilion manager, Yossi Peri, reported that in the two weeks it was open prior to the attack, the Israeli exhibits were visited by about 40,000 Cairenes who eagerly picked up pamphlets and brochures promoting Israeli industrial and agricultural technology. Peri said that millions of dollars worth of orders were placed with Israeli firms during the fair.

The attack Wednesday night was the third on Israeli Embassy personnel in the Egyptian capital and the second to cause fatalities. Last August, Albert Atrakchi, an administrative attache, was killed in his car in the Maadi quarter of Cairo.

In June, 1984, another Embassy official, Zvi kedar, was wounded by gunmen but survived. A group calling itself “Egypt’s Revolution” claimed credit for those shootings and for Wednesday night’s ambush killing.

There have also been at least two sabotage attempts, one against the Embassy in Cairo and the other aimed at the Israel Consulate in Alexandria.