The Israel Government has approached every government with which it has diplomatic relations and asked its intervention with the Government of Iraq to secure the release of three Israelis imprisoned by the Iraqi authorities six weeks ago when the British plane on which they were travelling was forced to land at Bagdad. The spokesman added that the United Nations Secretary General and the International Civil Aviation Organization have taken specific action on the case.
The Ministry spokesman denied a claim by the Iraqi that they were holding the three Israelis prisoner in retaliation for Israel’s holding seven Iraqi officers from the time of the Arab-Israel war. The Israeli spokesman said all Arab prisoners of war were released at the end of hostilities. He contrasted Israel’s release of a party of Egyptian students who accidentally crossed the border last year and its freeing of a planeload of 27 Arabs who were forced down inside Israel, to Iraq’s “inhuman” behavior in this case.
It was learned today that two letters have been received from Mrs. Minnie Barnes, 31, one of the prisoners in Bagdad, stating that she was depressed. The other two Israelis are an elderly couple named Ben Zaryi, Mrs. Barnes’ husband and five-year-old child have appealed to the Iraqi Government to release their wife and mother.
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