Israel today freed the first group of Arab prisoners in northern Sinai, honoring an agreement reached between Premier Menachem Begin and President Anwar Sadat at their summit meeting in Haifa last month. A second group will be released shortly. All will be deported to Egypt.
Israeli authorities stressed that the majority of the prisoners were serving sentences for criminal offenses and the few who were jailed for membership in terrorist organizations had not participated directly in terrorist acts. This point was made to forestall the flood of criticism that greeted the release of a large number of convicted terrorists earlier this year in exchange for a single Israeli soldier held by terrorists in Lebanon.
It was learned, meanwhile, that an Israeli army team will soon begin a search in the Egyptian held zones of western Sinai for the remains of Yom Kippur War soldiers still listed as missing. The Israelis will be assisted by Egyptian army officers who fought in the region in 1973.
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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.
