Israeli officials have acted in two areas of Israeli life to prevent any new Palestinian terrorist outrages–in the postal service where a careful check is being maintained for booby-trapped letters and at Haifa port in response to an anonymous telephone call that a major attack was being planned on a passenger liner arriving from Europe.
Another letter bomb, the 13th in three days, was found Friday morning in the Jerusalem mail-sorting office. It was addressed to a Jerusalem resident named Artzi whom the police did not identify further. Like the prior mailings, it was sent from Amsterdam. Postal service continued normally despite the meticulous checking of letters and parcels at the sorting offices. Transport Minister Shimon Peres cited two sorters in Jerusalem for their vigilance. Mordechai Aharonoff found six of the letters, and Rahamim Haroush found four.
Strong army detachments were ferried Thursday night to the Israeli motor ship, Dan, returning to Haifa from Europe with 358 passengers. Some of the soldiers took up strategic positions on board while others carried out a thorough check of the ship and luggage of the passengers. This was done while the ship remained in the Haifa Bay, before it was allowed to enter the port which was cordoned off by army and police units.
The search found the ship clear of anything suspicious and the ship then berthed and the passengers left promptly and quietly. A similar threat was received last week when the Dan’s sister ship, the Nili, arrived at Haifa. The Dan left Friday on schedule on a Succoth cruise.
(See P. 2 for developments at the United Nations on issue of terrorism.)
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