A military tribunal in Hebron pronounced a 15-year sentence yesterday on a 17 year-old Arab who attempted to murder an Israeli policeman on guard near the Machpela Cave last June. The youth struck the policeman with an iron bar and held off rescuers until he was shot and wounded. He was brought to trial when he recovered.
A 27 year-old Christian Arab house painter from Haifa was charged with espionage for Egypt and ordered detained pending trial. According to security officials, Labib Emille Najar was recruited by Egyptian intelligence agents while visiting Cyprus and agreed to supply them with Israeli military information and Israeli authorities intercepted a cable he sent in code informing the Egyptians that Israel was calling up its reserves.
Stiff prison sentences were imposed by a Ramallah military tribunal on two El Fatah leaders, the sole survivors of a 13-member guerrilla band destroyed in an encounter with an Israeli patrol near Jericho last June. The court pronounced sentences of 45 years and 30 years respectively on Abas Ahmed 28 the gang leader, and Jihad Sabah, 22. The guerrillas crossed the Jordan River into the West Bank last June 21 on a sabotage mission. They hid during the day in a banana grove but were spotted by an Israeli patrol that killed 11 of them and captured two.
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