Israel released 50 convicted terrorists and other criminals to Egypt today in exchange for the bodies of nine Israeli soldiers killed on the Barlev Line during the Yom Kippur War and the remains of two Israeli spies who were hanged in Cairo in 1955.
The coffins were brought by helicopter to the buffer zone in Sinai where Premier Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, Defense Minister Shimon Peres and Chief of Staff Gen. Mordechai Gur waited to receive them. The remains were sent to the Abu Kebir Pathological Institute for identification.
The spies–Dr. Moshe Marzoukh and Shmuel Azar–were members of an Israeli espionage ring in Cairo in 1954, the activities of which precipitated the notorious Lavon affair which still has political repercussions in Israel. They were seized by Egyptian police after bombing American installations in Cairo in an apparent attempt to create a rift between the United States and Egypt. The mission backfired and led to a bitter controversy in Israel over who had ordered it.
Premier David Ben Gurion held Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon responsible. This caused a split within the governing Mapai Party and a group headed by Ben Gurion broke away to form the Rafi faction. Rafi, now part of the Labor Party, is still a force in Israeli politics. Its acknowledged leader at present is Defense Minister Peres, recently elected leader of the Labor Party.
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